Raven X (T-rated)
by InkwellRaven
Summary: Prequel 1 of 2 for Ravensong. It started out with chance encounters and banter, flirting to mess with Raven's wild emotions. But the time that he pinned her to the wall and gave in to his desire to kiss her, Red X finds himself entangled with the enchantress of the Teen Titans in ways he never would have expected. And he'snot the only one that wants her, but he did get there first.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is the first of 2 prequels to Ravensong. This is the one that is furthest back in time. It covers the first love that broke Raven referred to in Ravensong (and the origins of the ring she wears around her neck) and goes over the first time she had to lead an army. Rated M for lemons a few chapters in. Hope you enjoy!

(If you're looking for the prequel about her dealings with Speedy, that's the second prequel that will come after this one.)

**Chapter 1**

Raven hit the wall with a thunk and slid down to her feet, leaning back against the wall for support as she found her footing. She glowered up at the skull caricature mask that hid the identity of Red X as he stood on the landing above them. She couldn't see his face but she could _feel_ his smirk and it annoyed her more than she liked. She looked around and saw that Beast Boy was stuck in a mass of goo from an exploding sticky goo X, Starfire was bound by an X of her own and rolling on the floor, her eyes flashing green with rage. She couldn't see Cyborg; he had been thrown into a stack of crates and had yet to emerge. Robin was crouched to her right, bo staff at the ready.

"Man," Beast Boy whined as he tried shifting into different animals but still unable to break free from the tacky substance that held him to the ground. "What _is_ this stuff? Why do I always get the sticky one?"

Robin quickly assessed the situation. Freeing Starfire or Beast Boy would take too much time and allow Red X to escape, as would looking for Cyborg. He turned to Raven and she nodded, ready for his plan. He felt for their bond and used it as he pointed left letting her feel where he wanted her to go. She took his direction and flew at Red X from the left as Robin approached from the right, grateful that their bond could be used in such an effective way.

He bounded up stacks of crates toward Red X as Raven approached from the other side to box him in. Robin dodged an X thrown at him, but Red X anticipated his movement and threw a disk that exploded into a net, entangling Robin before he could reach him. Red X saluted at Raven before she could reach him, grabbing the wooden case he came for and bounding away in the direction that Robin's entanglement had left open for him.

Raven swore, looking down at Robin tangled in a net that seemed to be made of metal cables. He had hit the ground hard but he seemed otherwise unscathed. Furious, but unscathed.

"I'm fine!" he called out as he made eye contact with her. He tried to reach his belt for something to cut himself free. "Get X! I'll be there as soon as I can."

Raven nodded, moving to chase Red X through the warehouse before he could make an escape. She rose up above the crates, dodging between columns of them trying to catch sight of some kind of movement that might give him away. She saw a stack of creates wobble ahead and flew toward it, finally catching sight of him ahead and using her soul self to appear in front of him, blocking his path to the exit he was heading for. He stood in a crouched defensive position as he faced her.

She called her power to her hands and held it there, waiting for Red X to make a move, but he stayed stubbornly where he was, choosing to wait to react to her moves than to go on the offensive. She was hard to read and he wasn't going to lose what he had come to steal because he misjudged her.

He stood when she didn't make a move, setting the box at his feet, tipped his head to the side and crossed his arms looking every bit like he hadn't a care in the world.

She flew at him suddenly, catching him off guard. He had been expecting her to keep her distance and stick with her magic as she usually did, but she came right at him with a flurry of blows. He stood defensively over his box, protecting it while trying to fend her off.

He finally managed to knock her back and she levitated away from him out of arm's reach. She nodded slightly as if affirming something in her head. Red X had the distinct feeling that she was testing him, analyzing him.

"Where'd you learn to fight, Princess?" he asked, impressed and being unable to keep it out of his voice.

"It's been awhile, Red X," she responded. "I've had time to train. And I train with one of the best."

"You mean the Boy Blunder?" he scoffed derisively. "Please. If you ever want to learn some new moves I could help you out there."

His voice had taken on a suggestive tone and Raven didn't miss his implication.

"I've got absolutely nothing to learn from you, X," she taunted, wondering if she could get a rise out of him, "and if you think you're distracting me so you can make your get away you can think again. I'm not letting you get away this time."

"Aww," he said, in his normal, cocky manner, propping one foot onto the box and leaning over his knee toward her nonchalantly. "You miss me already, Sunshine?"

She glared at him. "Do _not_ call me Sunshine."

She saw how he had sacrificed his stance to attempt his carefree mockery of her. She took advantage of the fact and lunged at him again. He was, indeed, caught off guard, but his derision at Robin's fighting prowess was not from unfounded arrogance. He adapted quickly and met her attack. He was quite the fighter himself.

He grappled her momentarily, bringing his masked face uncomfortably close to hers before dropping to the ground and flipping her over him. She had a moment to react and took her opportunity, grabbing the case on her way over it as Red X tossed her over him. She used her momentum to hoist it up and flung it ahead of her as she tumbled in the air. She skidded across the floor and rose to her hands and knees, tracking him with her eyes as she rose to her feet. She was now standing between him and his target. She backed up to it and kicked it further away from him, hearing it thud against the wall behind her.

"You want a different name, then?" he asked, nonplussed by their encounter or his loss of the case. "Or maybe you want a private name for when we're alone like this?" he asked, hoping to get her guard down, his digitized voice somehow growing husky and suggestive. "Something just between us? How about Little Bird? I like the idea of having my own Little Bird."

She scoffed at him and smirked, surprising him, her confidence growing now that she had his prize. If she didn't catch him she'd at least have thwarted his efforts.

"You couldn't handle me," she said wryly, responding to his banter.

She could hear the low chuckle through his mask as he took a step toward her, his interest piqued by her response.

"Is that a challenge, Little Bird?"

"Don't even think about it, Red," she said dangerously, taking an unintended step backward and chastising herself for it internally.

He took another step toward her, emboldened by her minor retreat. "Red, huh? I get nicknames too, then? I could think of more fun ones if you want to try them out. Maybe while we work on those moves I was talking about earlier."

She scoffed at him again, rolling her eyes. His overconfidence really did know no end.

"Don't be stupid," she warned. "I have your prize. It's over. Take your out while you have it."

"Maybe the box isn't the best prize in the room anymore," his eyebrow arched suggestively and the mask mimicked the motion. He took a deliberately slow assessment of her body, looking her up and down and taking another step toward her. "Hmmm," he hummed in approval. He had meant to rattle her but he found himself really liking what he saw.

"Keep pushing me and you won't like what I'll have to do to you," she growled, feeling unnerved by his actions.

"Hmm," he hummed again. "Sounds dirty. Is that a promise?"

He lunged for her, but it was a feint. As she moved to dodge him he threw a sticky X to where she was heading and caught her against the wall with it. She cursed herself. She had just seen him pull this move on Robin and here she was falling victim to the same stunt. She struggled against her bonds as he stepped up to her. He lifted her chin with a gloved finger and lowered his masked eyes to hers.

She looked at his mask with an almost bored expression on her face, though she was furious at herself inside. But she wasn't about to let him know how much it bothered her that he had bested her.

"You don't look too concerned being pinned against the wall in the face of a criminal," he noticed, cocking his head at her.

Raven scoffed. "You're a thief, X. It's not like you're a murderer."

She wasn't wrong. His file in Titans Tower, as large as it was, was only full of crimes of larceny. A criminal he may be, but she certainly wasn't in fear for her life.

"Just because someone hasn't done something in the past doesn't mean they aren't capable of it, Sunshine," he said, a sudden hard edge in his digitized voice now. "Don't forget that."

He kept his finger under her chin and kept her face lifted toward his.

"Or maybe you secretly enjoy it," he mused. "Maybe you have a thing for being pinned to the wall by a villain."

She appeared surprised at his continued implications and he analyzed her face, really looking at it and taking it in, for the first time. He'd never taken the time in all their encounters to notice how pretty the little bird truly was. Maybe he should have been paying more attention sooner. He wondered how far he could push her. He had to admit that he was having more fun than he had thought he would tonight. He brushed a lock of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear.

"I don't think I've ever realized how beautiful your eyes are before, Little Bird."

A chill ran down her back and she grunted as she tried anew to free herself of the binding X. She couldn't break it and she couldn't escape by teleporting with her soul self without taking him with her. He was too close. And while she hadn't feared that he would hurt her, at least until his veiled threat, she was now more fearful of what her emotions would do if he kept toying with her. And her pride was not ready for her to lose control in front of him after he'd already tricked her.

"Are you scared now, Little Bird?" he asked, noticing her shiver and the increase in the rhythm of her breathing, his masked face inches from hers. "There's a spark in your eyes. It's either fear . . . or I was right and it's passion. So tell me, do you like being so close to me, Little Bird, or are you scared?"

"I am _not_ scared," she bristled, realizing too late the implication he had tricked her into.

"That is _not_ what I m-" He placed a finger against her lips to stop her protest and stepped up to her, pressing his body against hers.

"I think it _is_ what you meant," he purred, running the backs of his fingers down the side of her neck. He watched her breath catch and something about her stirred something within him.

A shiver ran down her spine and she couldn't figure out which of her emotions had caused it. As much as she would never admit it to him a suppressed part of her liked the attention and was causing her breathing to become more rapid and her pulse to quicken.

"Fine, X," she spat, hoping to distract him from his current train of thought, "you rattled me. You win, yet again. Congratulations. Take your prize and go. Next time you won't be so lucky, though. Mark my words."

He raised his hands to his face and pulled up his mask, not completely, still letting it shield his eyes. He leaned in over her shoulder.

"Watch what you say," he whispered in her ear, his voice deep and his breath over her skin sending more shivers down her spine. "You just invited me to take my prize and, like I said earlier, maybe the case isn't the best prize anymore. Maybe it's no longer _my_ prize."

Her eyes widened at the rather blatant implication but before she could voice a cutting response his lips pressed against hers. He was firm, but not forceful, moving his lips slowly against hers as if coaxing her while waiting for her to make her move, curious as to what she would do. Her emotions roiled within her but Lust had been suppressed for far too long and before she could determine what a bad idea it was she found herself giving in and kissing him back.

He hummed in amusement, the sound quickly turning into a groan as she deepened the kiss and he found his tongue wrestling with hers. He pressed her into the wall with his body more firmly, catching his balance with a hand on the wall by her head. His other hand trailed from her shoulder and down her torso, finally gripping her hip as he pulled her as tightly against him as the X pinning her allowed. He didn't know what had come over him. He had only wanted to have a bit of fun with the dark Titan, toy with those infamous volatile emotions of hers. He hadn't expected her to respond like this and he hadn't expected to be drawn in like this. To be enjoying it this much. To be lost in her.

But he could feel desire for her growing as his body pushed against hers and he found himself wishing that she wasn't hindered by the binding X he had thrown. The way she kissed, he now wondered what she was capable of with her hands unrestrained.

They could hear the crates nearby exploding as her emotions ran wild, but they couldn't bring themselves to care enough to break their contact with one another. Something about their physical connection resonated with each of them and it was something neither could explain or put a name to. Something neither of them wanted to stop.

He finally pulled reluctantly away from her as he heard a commotion approaching. The other Titans had extricated themselves from his traps and would be here any moment. He could hear Robin shouting orders to the team as they approached.

He looked down at Raven, panting as he tried to catch his breath. This was not how he thought tonight would go and he was not disappointed in the least by the turn of events. And by the look on her face and the heaving of her chest neither was she. He stroked her face with his thumb before taking a step back and replacing his mask. He turned to go.

"Your case," Raven said, lamely, not sure why she said it. Her brain was just so fuzzy all of a sudden, her body in some sort of weird shock at the loss of contact.

He turned back to her and she could see the mask mimic his eyebrow arching again.

"Not my prize anymore, Little Bird. Remember?" He found that this time he might actually mean it. There was something about her that was drawing him back in.

A button on his belt glowed suddenly.

"Finally charged," he said, looking back to Raven again. "I'll be seeing you soon, Sunshine." The tone of his voice conveyed a promise rather than a parting sentiment and she wasn't sure if she was concerned or excited by it.

The other Titans arrived in time to see him press the button and disappear as he teleported away to safety. They found Raven still pinned to the wall, with the case beside her, looking shell shocked.

"Raven!" Robin cried as he ran to her, using a birdarang to cut through the X and holding onto her as she stumbled. "What happened? Are you okay? What did he do to you? Raven?!"

He shook her when she wouldn't answer and the motion made her blink and finally meet his gaze.

"I'm okay," she assured once she regained some of her senses. "Robin, I'm okay. He just . . ."

She looked off to the spot where he disappeared and her brow furrowed in confusion. What the hell had that been about? And why did she respond the way she did? She touched her lips, still not sure that any of this had actually happened.

"He just what, Raven?" Robin asked, shifting his head into her line of sight and making her focus on him once more.

"He just . . . he . . . _kissed_ me," she breathed, her fingers still on her lower lip.

"He _what_?!" he snarled, his grip tightening on her shoulders. She looked him in the eyes, confusion still written all over her face.

"He – he kissed me. I got the case from him, he pinned me with the X, partially pulled up his mask and . . . he kissed me. He didn't even take the case before he left."

She gestured to the ground beside her and Robin saw the case that Red X had tried to hard to steal from the warehouse just sitting there abandoned on the ground amid the debris from her emotions.

"Why would he do that?" Raven asked when his masked eyes returned to her.

"Come on," he said, helping to steady her on her feet. He could feel how much confusion she had through their bond and he tried his best to keep the emotions he felt off of his face even though his blood was boiling. She was acting strange and it only increased his ire at Red X. "Let's get you home. Cyborg. Make sure that box gets to where it needs to go. See if you can trace where Red X may have been taking it or where he went."

Cyborg nodded and lifted the box and Robin walked out with Raven, guiding her toward his motorcycle, knowing that when her emotions were in turmoil even her teleportion could be affected. He handed her a helmet and asked if she preferred this over attempting to use her powers. She nodded and climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist as the engine roared to life.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: There is a T rated and M rated version of this story. Make sure you're on the one you prefer. This is the T rated version.)

**Chapter 2**

Raven had been reclusive over the last few days. She hadn't spent any time in the common room, she had taken her meals at odd hours, and she had avoided the rest of her team even more than usual. Not that anyone had really noticed. She did this sometimes, retreating from them and from the world. And the Titans were all busy on their search for Red X.

Robin had returned to the tower with Raven after their last encounter with him, ensuring that she was fine and that she was sure that Red X hadn't crossed the line any further than she had already divulged. His concern was particularly touching to her, but as soon as he was convinced she was okay he had thrown himself into his hunt for Red X. The last few days had been a blur of being sent on leads and monitoring criminal activity in the city for all the Titans as Robin directed the search.

Raven leaned back in her chair, holding a mug of tea in her hands, sighing in relief. This tea shop had her favorite cream earl grey blend and it had been her favorite spot for quite some time. It was small and quiet, and silence was in short supply these days. She had finally managed to escape the tower today without detection, relieved at not having to explain herself and her self imposed seclusion.

She found that lately she did not know what to think.

And that annoyed her.

Their last encounter with Red X had shaken her to her core. The strangeness of his actions was one thing, but what concerned her most was her reaction to it all. She had lost control of one of her suppressed emotions and it had taken the lead. It had practically _taken over_. She hated losing control but losing control usually just meant things breaking and taking flight around her. This was different. This time her loss of control meant she did something she hadn't intended to do; something against her will.

Either that or it _wasn't _truly against her will and somehow she felt that might be worse.

Her hands clenched around the mug and she stared of out the window. She had spent a lot of time in Nevermore after that night, but her emotions were warring and just being there around it was draining. She hadn't been able to calm either side and now she felt just as confused and equally exhausted.

She pulled her zip up hoodie tighter around herself, nudging the bag under the table with her cloak in it to reassure herself that it was there. She assumed it wouldn't be long before Robin had another lead for her to follow and she would get the call. But she was enjoying this slight respite from being a Titan.

As if on cue, her communicator went off. She rolled her eyes, wishing she had had more time to herself before grabbing it and responding. But it wasn't just a lead. Red X had been spotted at a bio research facility and Robin told the Titans to get there as soon as they could.

Raven abandoned her tea, shouldered her bag, and left the tea shop. She turned into an alley using her powers to phase out of her civilian clothes to reveal the familiar leotard underneath and donning her cloak.

She flew to the facility, flashing alarm lights leading her way. She could see Starfire's silhouette in the sky approaching as well and headlights racing toward the building that she assumed was the T car and Robin's motorcycle.

She entered the facility, hoping to do some recon as the others arrived. She was determined to fight Red X, no matter what may have happened the last time. Though she may have enjoyed what she had felt when he had kissed her, she couldn't ignore the fact that she was a Titan, he was a thief, and she didn't know the first thing about him.

The message came through her communicator that the others had arrived. She told them she was inside and would cover the top floor down. They claimed their floors, were given the command to be careful and to alert the others as soon as Red X was found, and set out.

It didn't take long.

Raven heard the explosion below before Cyborg called out to announce that he had spotted Red X on the third floor. Raven phased through the floor and arrived in time to see Red X dodge a blast from Cyborg's sonic cannon. Something in her fluttered at seeing him and she gritted her teeth in anger and determination against it. She shielded Cyborg from Red X's next attack and when Red X saw her black magic his head snapped up, looking around frenziedly until he spotted her.

He stared at her, his expression hidden by his mask, but her breathing quickened nonetheless. The mask mimicked the motion of his eyes narrowing as he focused intently on her. She hadn't been sure whether his weird fixation with her would continue the next time they met, but as the others arrived and the fight continued, she kept noticing him find the time to turn toward her, eyes narrowed in concentration. Watching.

She was unnerved. But half of her emotions were thrilled and she was having trouble keeping that side of her quelled.

She didn't have long to wrestle with her conflicting nature, though. Robin batted away one of Red X's explosive devices, but misdirected where he knocked it. A chunk of the ceiling made an ominous cracking noise as the device hit it and cracks spider-webbed across its surface. Raven had been shielding Beast Boy from falling specimen tanks and didn't hear the sound until too late. A chunk of the ceiling came crashing down on her and she hadn't time to cast a shield or phase through it. She took the blow to the head and fell in a heap on the floor.

Robin glared at Red X with accusation and wild fury before he started to run to her, but Red X stepped ahead of him and gave the hero a vicious blow to the head. He stared down at Robin's unconscious form, surprised at the brutality he had used to take him out. But Robin had been careless and Raven had suffered for it and that had affected him more than he thought it would.

The thief tried to run to her, but Starfire hovered protectively over her and Beast Boy hurried to stand between Red X and Raven as well. Red X dodged to the side suddenly and threw a handful of bladed Xes toward them. While they reacted to them he took the opportunity to throw a small orb and a red electric web shot out to contain both Beast Boy and Starfire in the crackling net, dropping them and making their bodies twitch as they tumbled down the staircase beside them.

He dashed to Cyborg, who was already rushing to Raven's side, bringing the combat close and avoiding the use of the sonic cannon. The flurry of close range blows distracted Cyborg and caused him to take several steps back. Red X hooked one of Cyborg's feet and shoved him hard, causing him to tumble into the cryochamber behind him. The thief slammed the door shut and locked him in before turning and running to the prone Raven.

He cradled her head in his lap and checked it, finding that the knock she had taken was already healing. Her chest rose and fell in a steady manner and he breathed out a sigh of relief, letting out a breath he didn't know had caught. Why he cared what happened to the Titan, he wasn't quite sure, but he was grateful that she seemed alright.

She looked peaceful, like she was just sleeping. He brushed a strand of hair out of her face wondering whether she really was a witch like some of the other villains had claimed. What else could explain his strange behavior around her than him being bespelled? He sat running his fingers through her hair and wondered why he still wasn't leaving since what he had come here to acquire already rested in his pocket. But the realization hit him that he wasn't going to be able to leave in peace without knowing that she would awaken. What was it about her that was doing this to him?

She stirred as he stroked her hair and hummed at the contact. He smiled and ran the back of a finger down her cheek. Her eyes fluttered open and grew wide as she recognized who was with her.

She lashed out with her magic, blasting Red X back but in doing so lost the support of his lap under her head and it made contact with the polished cement floor beneath her. She swore loudly as she scrambled to her feet, holding a hand to her newly ringing head.

Red X regained his footing and stood staring at her, a chuckle escaping him as he admired her feistiness. He stayed his ground, waiting to see what her next move would be. She stared him down as she took a deep breath, her arms held out slightly from her sides. Her power flickered briefly on her hands, but she winced and one hand flew to her head as she closed her eyes and staggered.

Her head was killing her. Possibly literally. Taking two blows had caused damage that hadn't healed yet and trying to call on her powers sent a sharp stab through her skull. She felt dizzy and the world started to tilt around her. She felt herself falling but couldn't sort out which way was which to brace her fall.

She felt arms around her before she hit the floor. She shook her head as she was gently lifted back to where she could get her feet back under her, though they wouldn't take her weight yet. Her vision finally shook off the haze and she could focus on the grinning skull mask before her.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked foggily. "Why are you helping me?"

He stared at her for a time, still supporting her weight in his arms and making no move to release her. He leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"I'm honestly not sure, Sunshine," he replied.

"I told you not to call me that," she muttered, pulling herself forcefully from his arms and stumbling back, her legs still shaky. She cradled her head in her hands and took a few deep breaths, feeling her head clear with each one. Her healing was finally catching up.

"Right," he chuckled, low and deep. The sound sent shivers up her spine and not all of them unpleasant. "I forgot, Little Bird."

She regained control of her head and threw tendrils of her magic at him. He dodged them and threw a binding X at her. She barely ducked in time.

"I'm still not your Little Bird," she seethed, her head ringing. She was quickly healing now but using her powers still hurt. "Whatever game you're playing I am not entertained, Red X."

He took a step toward her. She straightened in response, the fog slowly clearing from her head. She was determined to not give in to whatever game he was playing. She would take him out tonight and the war in her head would finally be over.

"I'm not playing any game, Little Bird. I just have a new prize, remember?"

"I'm not your fucking prize, X!" she spat, a vehemence and a tinge of sadness in her eyes.. "You don't even know me."

"We could fix that, you know," he purred, taking another step toward her. His voice took on a more serious tone as he continued. "But I _do_ know some things about you, Little Bird. I know enough to know that you're different from all your friends. You're smarter than any of them, your wit is better, you're stronger. You think they'd be better off without you and you don't realize that they wouldn't work without you. You spend so much time worrying about everyone hating you that you can't see how much people truly like being around you."

She stared at him, taking in his words and the confusion only growing in her. He had been watching her. Not only that, but he had taken the time to have insight into her.

"You're also incapable of seeing how beautiful you are," he stated.

She froze for a moment, not so much his words but the conviction behind them that shook her. He said it without insinuation, as if he were simply stating a fact, and it made her hesitate.

He took the opportunity and ran the final few steps toward her, grabbing her by the waist and pushing her into the wall behind her. She grunted as she hit the wall and glared daggers at him. She called her powers to her hands so he grabbed her delicate wrists in his grip before she could hurl her power at him.

He pinned her arms to the wall beside her head and tsked at her.

"So feisty," he murmured. He lifted her arms above her head and held both of her hands there in one of his as he used his other to lift his mask up partway again. She hissed as she realized what he intended to do.

"Azarath, Met-"

It was all she got out before his lips crashed against hers, silencing her spell.

She was furious that she was already kissing him back.

His hand was at the back of her head, tangling in her hair and pulling her deeper into the kiss. He groaned as she arched her back, her chest and hips pressing tantalizingly against him, making him grateful that her body wasn't pinned to the wall this time. He took his chances and released her wrists, his hand sliding down her arms and rubbing his thumb across her breast as his hand traveled down her torso. He slid it behind her and pulled her hips more tightly against his.

With her wrists free her current reigning emotions wasted no time in wrapping one arm around the back of his neck and allowing the other hand free roam down the tight muscles of his back. He practically purred at her roaming hands and broke their kiss to lean over her shoulder and lay a searing line of kisses and nips down the column of her throat, causing her to moan quietly. He laughed softly in appreciation of the sound and his breath blowing across her skin set her flesh alive with goosebumps.

He covered her lips with his once more and marveled that this was happening again. Whatever it was that had drawn him in last time had drawn him in again and he went along with the tide of it. His body was alight with what felt like an electric current. Being with her was exquisite and all they had done was kiss. He couldn't help his mind wandering to what it would feel like to take things further and he found himself getting flush at the images that flashed in his mind.

She was dizzy with his kisses, still pressed up against the wall by the weight of his body against hers when the sound of the approaching Titans from the floor below interrupted once again. Debris from her untamed emotions lay scattered around her and Red X but they hadn't even heard the equipment breaking. They had been too tangled in each other and the world around them had gone unnoticed until they parted. Red X pulled back, his breath heaving.

"Until next time, Little Bird," he panted, giving her one final kiss, this one soft and gentle and unnerving her far more than the passion fueled kisses he had given her earlier. He pulled back, replaced his mask, and stared at her for a moment before activating his belt and disappearing.

"Well, shit," she swore when she finally caught her breath, preparing to face Starfire and Beast Boy as they emerged from the staircase. That was not how the night was supposed to go.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The alarm blared throughout the tower bringing everyone to alert. Most of the team clamored from their rooms to gather before the comm screen and find out what they were up against this time. Raven, however, set her book in her lap and sat in her room for a moment before doing the same. She had to collect herself, calm herself down, before joining the others. Her emotions were getting out of hand lately. Her excitement fought with her guilt and it took long moments before she was able to reconcile the two.

Robin turned as she finally entered the room and the others were already preparing to head out.

"Red X," he said as he approached her, Cyborg at his side. "Call came in from the museum downtown. We don't have much time. Are you okay with taking two of us?"

She nodded and reached out to touch both of them on the shoulder, engulfing them both in her soul self. She could only take the two that far of a distance, even taking two halfway across town taxed her more than she liked. The others would fly but they all needed to get to the museum as fast as they could to catch Red X and Robin and Cyborg needed Raven to get them there. Beast Boy and Starfire would be there shortly after.

A nervous concern flowed through Raven's bond with Robin as her soul self dissipated and left them in the foyer of the museum, the alarm screaming around them. Raven closed her eyes and sent out tendrils of her power and silenced the alarm.

"I hate those things," she sighed as she opened her eyes and found that same concern still pulsing through their bond as Robin's eyes met hers.

"I'm fine, Robin," she assured, trying to send reassuring feelings through the bond while keeping to herself the ones that were making her stomach flip. As well as the guilt that she felt about putting them in danger again just for a chance to . . .

"He's taken us all out the last few times we've run across him," he said, reaching for her shoulder and interrupting her train of thought. "He's been acting weird lately, especially around you, and I think that he's trying to mess with your emotions. Keep your guard up. He's been unusually active and I can't help but feel like he's up to something . . . bigger. I want you to stay safe."

The feelings through the bond were shifting but Robin squeezed her shoulder and cut off the tie before she could figure out what he was feeling. She simply nodded and they turned to Cyborg who was analyzing the security grid.

"Third floor," he said, readying his sonic cannon.

Beast Boy and Starfire flew in the entrance behind them and Robin looked at all of them before nodding.

"Titans, go!"

The glass cases on the third floor were still intact but the precious royal jewels – from some ancient civilization whose name they hadn't taken the time to read from the report – were missing from their stands. They fanned out to find Red X. The other set of jewels from the rival civilization were on the other side of the room. Their museum contact said that the jewels were worth infinitely more all together. It was the best lead they had for where he was going next. Red X was never one to leave a job half done if it meant a better payday for the extra effort. At least _that_ they knew about him and felt they could count on.

The elevators disabled themselves once the alarm went off and they had Beast Boy manning the staircase going down and Starfire the one leading up. He was here somewhere on this floor – they could see the other set of jewels safely in their case across the room – they just had to find him. They kept quiet in case Red X used the teleportation capabilities of his belt. Robin said he knew the sound of the belt activating. Their footsteps echoed strangely in the silence. The silence didn't last long.

"Oh, come _on_!" they heard Beast Boy shout from below, followed by several different beast noises straining one after the other. Robin turned back to the staircase fearing that Red X was now on the second floor, calling for Raven and Cyborg to stay and keep an eye on the case.

A blur practically flew from above down the staircase followed closely by Starfire, shooting starbolts from her hands. Robin was practically bowled over by the two but quickly regained his footing and pursued Red X as he approached Cyborg, Raven, and the second case of jewels.

They could hear his chuckle as he dodged their attacks. He threw an X at Cyborg, causing him to roll away from Raven and right into the path of one of Robin's exploding disks. He was blown some distance away as Red X continued approaching the jewel case. He tossed an X that split in two with a wire connecting them at Raven. It wrapped around her ankles mid stride and caused her to tumble to the ground.

"Need you to stay put, Little Bird," he whispered as he passed, a starbolt exploding beside him. He changed his course away from Raven and the case and toward a room to the side, slightly down the hall to the next wing, that held priceless originals of scrolls from the civilizations on display. Raven struggled to free herself as the others regrouped and followed Red X.

They were only in the room for moments before Red X bolted out of the room backward, throwing bladed X's into the room and breaking display cases causing new alarms to start screaming and bars to descend from the top of the doorway. Red X stepped up to the door and placed two disks on the floor, activating them to position a glowing red wall of light directly in front of the bars and a crackling wall of electricity directly through the bars themselves.

Starfire and Cyborg both cried out in their individual attempts to break the bars, Cyborg sparking as he shorted out and falling to the ground. The electricity arcing over the bars like lightning even repelled Starfire's starbolts. Robin realized that they had played right into Red X's trap. He had been prepared for this exact scenario . . . which Robin realized was strange. The first jewel case was unbroken and there was no need for Red X to have set off the alarm before reaching the second set of jewels. And he had come up with a perfect trap for them once they got here. Something else was going on and now Raven was forced to fight him alone. Again.

Raven could hear Robin swear as she finally managed to free herself from the X wrapped around her ankles. She could hear Beast Boy grumbling about why it always had to be a sticky X with him from somewhere downstairs and a glance was all it took to know that it would be some time before the rest of her team would be able to extricate themselves from their tidy trap. She threw the X away from her in disgust and could hear footsteps approaching. She rose to her feet, turning to face him.

He stopped several paces from her, not even looking at her but admiring a map of the two civilizations mounted on the wall. He traced the details with his finger, as if admiring the intricacy.

"Gonna steal the map, too, Carmen Sandiego?" she asked wryly.

"A connoisseur of history and the arts can't admire a historic piece anymore?" he asked.

"So you're a connoisseur now? Funny, I thought you were just a thief."

"I'm not _just_ anything, dear Raven. I would have thought you'd come to know that by now."

She stared at him for a moment, both to try to read him _and_ to calm her emotions.

"I take it saving me for last wasn't a coincidence," she quipped quietly, crossing her arms over her chest in an almost childish gesture of putting a barrier between them. Trading quips wasn't going to calm the war in her. It always led to trouble between them and a change in tactics was due. "What did you do to him? Cyborg?" She gestured toward the room her friends were trapped in with her head.

Red X threw a bladed X at her without warning, causing her to throw herself out of the way, away from the jewels and the map and farther into the large display room. He followed her, now out of line of sight of the doorway of the Titans' trap. He could hear Robin calling out for her now that he couldn't see her.

"Don't worry Sunshine. Metal man will take a while to reboot but he'll be fine. Enough shock to get him to take a little nap is all. Hurting them wouldn't exactly make you happy with me now would it?"

Raven planted her feet and glowered at him, her emotions already fighting over what to say next.

"Can we just get this over with?" she managed to spit out. "Witty banter meets shady innuendos, we fight, you weasel your way out and escape, Robin freaks out and attempts to track you, and I pretend to listen to Robin lecture me for letting you get away before I get to go back to my room with a book and a cup of tea. Or can we just skip it? You want to hand over those jewels you stole and disappear? Save me the trouble?"

He pushed the button on his belt and disappeared.

She stood in shock for moment before she felt her arms pinned to her sides from behind and his breath in her ear indicating that he had lifted his mask to reveal the lower half of his face.

"You forgot the part where our lips unavoidably meet and we can't keep our hands off each other," he whispered in her ear, his tongue darting out to graze her earlobe. "The part of these heists I look forward to the most these days."

"I take it that's a no to just skipping it," she breathed, taken aback for a moment, wishing her emotions would stop the all out civil war that was going on in her head.

"Is that what you really want, Little Bird?" he murmured, setting her nerves on edge as his breath caressed her skin with every word. His thumbs rubbed against her arms in small circles, her skin erupting in gooseflesh. "Have our encounters really meant so little to you? Because I haven't been able to think about anything else since that first night. And those dirty and delectable thoughts only get harder to ignore after every encounter, little one."

He held her against him with one arm as his other hand removed the bag of jewels from his belt and jingled them before dropping them at her feet, spilling the priceless artifacts on the floor.

"I'm running out of jobs to pull to get near you. I even had to run this ruse of a theft to get you in the same room with me. Had to create this one myself with no actual buyer. Really, Little Bird? Jewels? That is _so_ beneath me. I don't care about them and I think you know that. It's not the jewels I was after or I would have already had both sets." He paused before letting out a low laugh. "_And_ the map, for that matter."

He stepped up to her and she could feel his strong chest at her back. She could hear him take a long smell of her hair.

"But I've had a new prize for quite some time now, remember? Something far better."

Her eyes fluttered shut subconsciously as he kissed her behind the ear and laid a trail of slow, intimate kisses down the side of her neck until he reached the junction of her neck and shoulder. He held her against him with both arms once more, his grip vice-like as if he feared letting her slip away.

Raven shook herself from her momentary submission to her feelings and jerked her arms, trying to break out of his grasp, but he knew it was half-hearted. She was physically stronger than the effort she was currently putting forth. She was fully capable of breaking free from his grasp but he believed part of her was enjoying what he was doing and didn't want to break free.

And he wasn't wrong. Raven's emotions were still warring, an almost literal line drawn in the sand between the two factions of her emotions, but Lust was angry and wanted her chance to be heard. The last few encounters with Red X had emboldened her and tonight was no different. Lust took the lead from the other emotions – including Loyalty who was outraged at the treatment of her team – with Joy and Courage at her side, and coaxed Raven to give in and succumb to the pleasure of the encounter.

Raven ever so slightly tipped her head to the side in response, exposing more of her neck to Red X and he hummed in approval.

Raven snapped back to reality when she hear Robin screaming her name again from his current prison. He was calling for her to respond, to make sure she was okay. She was about to shout back when she felt Red X's grip tighten on her arms and heard him growl above her shoulder. There was something primal and possessive about it and she found it excited her.

Which annoyed her.

She felt a strange sensation and the world constricted and spun around her. It took her a few moments after her vision returned to normal to realize that she was no longer in the museum, but rather on its roof. He had used his belt to transport them both there.

"I thought maybe seclusion away from your friends was best, no?" He asked, releasing his hold on her arms and turning her to face him, a coy smirk tweaking up a corner of his mouth. He lay his hands on her hips and pulled her against him. "Maybe it will take them a while to find us this time. And maybe you won't have the chance to break something priceless again when I do this."

He pressed his lips against hers in a fleeting, slow, tease of a kiss that only encouraged the butterflies in her stomach to flutter all the more. He pressed his forehead against hers and took another deep breath as if trying to take in the very essence of her scent.

"What do you want?" she asked, pulling her face away from his, her eyes pleading. Her emotions were wreaking havoc in Nevermore more than ever and she couldn't sort anything out. He always did this to her and she hated being so out of control. She was so tired.

"I should think that was obvious," he murmured against her lips, his barely touching hers but causing her breath to quicken nonetheless. He could feel the swell of her chest rise and fall with each breath as it was pressed up against his and it did nothing to quell his desire.

It took everything in her to take a step back, even though more than one emotion in Nevermore was on Lust's side calling for her not to move away. "I'm serious," she whispered. He took a step forward to be pressed up against her again, his hands running up and down her arms and it felt so right that she couldn't bring herself to take another step away, finding herself leaning into him even though she hadn't intended to do it.

"I mean, there's banter between adversaries," she continued shakily, "there's cocky mockery between opponents and empty flirting and then there's . . . then there's this." She stood on her toes to press her lips fiercely to his and he sighed as she did, gripping her arms tightly and holding her to him. Part of him had been fearing that she was trying to rationalize staying away from him, and being away from her was the last thing that he wanted.

This was their third encounter since their first kiss and, he was right, it always ended like this, with their bodies pressed against each other and their lips locked together in passion. They were drawn to each other like magnets and couldn't resist the pull to one another, only parting when the rest of her team inevitably came barging toward them.

Raven had told Robin of the first kiss, mostly out of shock and confusion from the whole incident, but she had kept the more confusing elements of her last two encounters with Red X to herself. Robin had been strangely perturbed after the first time Red X had kissed her and although part of her had been beside herself with hope at his concern over her, another part of her hadn't wanted to disturb him like that again when it happened the next time. Or the next.

She wasn't quite sure when it had happened but she had come to the realization that she had loved Robin for some time now. She had never acted on it, never even revealed her feelings to anyone, and he had never shown any indication he felt the same. But he had gotten so _angry_ when Red X had kissed her the first time and part of her couldn't help hoping that it meant some kind of reciprocal feeling for her.

But he had buried that anger once he had gotten her back to the tower and made sure that she was okay after the whole incident. And ever since then things had been as they always were, except his renewed fervor in his search for Red X. Raven assumed his anger that night had been because the man that had managed to best him and steal the Red X suit from him was now toying with his team and nothing more than that. Though, she admitted, she could never be truly sure of Robin's feelings. He was good at keeping those cards close to his chest and she refused to use their bond to violate his privacy and find out for herself. She wouldn't let herself go that far. She would never forgive him if he did it to her.

Besides, she wasn't even sure how _she_ felt about this whole mess herself – either about Robin _or_ Red X – besides knowing that her stomach turned to knots whenever the Titan alarm went off, part of her hoping that it would be Red X causing it and part of her dreading it. She wasn't sure what name to put to what she had with the thief, but she felt more alive with him than she could ever remember feeling with _anyone_ else and that was not something to be ignored for her.

The second time they met, when they fought in that medical research facility, hadn't been any less confusing or powerful for her emotions than the first encounter. Robin had questioned her about the damage – damage her emotions had caused while Red X's lips were on her – which she blamed on her unfocused emotions as she regained consciousness, and he had taken off after his nemesis. Raven's heart had stung a bit at his sudden switch in attention from her well being to his adversary, but too many of her emotions were reeling from their second encounter with the thief for her to dwell on the pain for long.

The next time they met, an attempt to steal some kind of experimental device from a tech company just outside of town, she had fought him hard, determined to succeed where she had so far failed. She fought him as if he were any other criminal but nothing that she did – no low blows, no scathing words that she spat, no attack – deterred him from trying to get close to her. Finally _she_ had managed to subdue _him, _physically sitting on top of him as his head reeled from the last blow she had given to it. She had been determined to catch him and turn him in this time, hoping that it would help her sort through her confusion with him safely behind bars.

But even as she reached for her communicator to call in his capture he had shifted her hips while she was atop him, putting her off balance. He pulled himself up from his position lying on the ground beneath her, pulled up his mask to the bridge of his nose, and had found her lips with his. She dropped the communicator as soon as his lips met hers and she had been lost to the moment with him.

Just as she was lost now on the roof of the museum.

His hands slid down to cup her ass as he pulled her body up against his. She moaned into his mouth as she pulled him more tightly against her as if desperate to stay as tightly connected with him as possible. And he responded with the same ardor and want. They spent a seemingly impossible amount of time in each others arms clinging to each other for dear life, their lips practically bruising against each other. She could hear the twisting sound of metal screeching from whatever her powers had grabbed hold of on the roof, but she couldn't bring herself to care. He removed her cloak as their hands roamed over each other's bodies in heated exploration, neither able to pull the other close enough to satisfy their desire for one another.

He moved his hand to the back of her thigh and slid it down to her knee, lifting her leg up over his hip. His hand crept back up her thigh oh so slowly in an agonizing tease. He traced fire on her flesh and she found her need for him growing in the pit of her stomach. She cried out at the same time as her powers ripped something from the rooftop and flung it into the night.

He hummed, partly in amusement and partly from his growing need for her. He had wondered at what would happen if they went further and now, hearing the delicious noises that she could make, he wasn't sure he would be able to stop, even if the Titans _did_ escape to assist her.

She was out of breath and feverish to the touch, coming down from a euphoric high, when the sound of the approaching Titans could be heard heading to the roof. She pulled back from Red X even though every fiber of her her being wanted more of what he could give.

"You have to go," she whispered, her voice hoarse and husky. "You have to go before they find you."

He stared at her for what felt like long minutes before he nodded.

"Don't get this wrong," he murmured darkly. "I'm coming back for you, Little Bird. This is not the end."

It came out as a low guttural grumble and it sounded like a threat. But before she could determine if it was a threat or a promise he descended on her for one more intense, searing kiss before he pulled away with what seemed to take great effort. He used his belt and was gone.

The Titans found her alone on the roof almost half an hour after they had been trapped. They were more concerned about what had happened to her than they were about Red X and his whereabouts, she had looked that ragged. But the debris on the roof clearly indicated an all out fight to them and her exhaustion made sense. She couldn't help but wonder what they would think if they knew the real reason for the debris on the roof.

Robin was insistent that he take her home so she could calm herself and tell them what happened but she brushed him off, shaking. She simply told them that she had to meditate, grabbed her cloak, and used her soul self to teleport home.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Red X laid the cash in neat rows in the safe – the payment for his latest job – and closed the door gently to avoid jostling the vials of Xenothium that lay within, checking the latch to make sure it locked. He closed the panel in the wall that hid the safe from prying eyes. He turned and looked at his Red X suit where he left it laid out across the bed. He stood staring at it for several minutes. He had pulled off the job without a hitch; no security problems, no cops . . . and no Titans.

It had been two weeks since he had last seen Raven on the museum rooftop and the time away from her was affecting him more than he had liked or anticipated. He still hadn't worked out what it was about her or what, exactly, they had between them. All he knew was that he needed more.

He shook his head and put the suit away in its black bag before pulling back the curtains and staring out over the city. The night was still young, and he decided to go out, grabbing his keys and carefully locking the door behind him.

A successful job usually brought a unique sense of satisfaction, but all the could feel was restless. He had been hoping for her to be there tonight. She made every nerve awake, alive, and active, but simultaneously brought a sense of calm to every fiber of his being and he had never felt that before. Now he craved it. He had even stopped having the crippling nightmares that usually haunted his sleeping hours and he knew that, somehow, she was the reason. He needed to distract himself from the fact that he had not gotten the relief of her presence for weeks now, despite his unusual amounts of heists hoping for her appearance. He was even starting to have the nightmares again and he needed to find something to make him feel the way she did. At least a shadow of it.

He found himself at a bar that he favored, not a dive but also not a club. He liked the laid back atmosphere, and the dance floor and good taste in djs usually brought a healthy choice of pretty girls with enough wit to hold at least a superficial conversation with.

The bouncer at the door nodded to him, knowing him well and being companionable with him, allowing him to pass without paying cover and Red X's civilian persona gave him a cocky salute and a pat on the shoulder as he passed. He headed to the bar, ordered his beer and scanned the crowd over his glass. He wasn't even halfway through his beer when he noticed two women at the tall, circular table nearby sitting next to each other and staring at him. He turned back to the bar, smirking, and placed his soon empty glass on the bar, ordering a bourbon in its place. He could see them out of his periphery and could see they were still staring at him and giggling to one another. He smirked as he kept his body angled to the bar. Maybe he'd get a release tonight after all.

He waited several minutes after he had gotten his drink before he turned back toward them again. He finally made eye contact and one of them waved at him. He smirked at her, grabbed his drink, and headed in their direction.

He stood opposite of the table from the blonde that kept giving him bedroom eyes and the woman with hair almost dark enough to rival Raven's. They flirted, they talked about music and the like and each woman started to get more competitive about who would be leaving with him. Two more bourbons later Red X found himself walking out of the doors, patting his friend at the door on the shoulder again on his way out, and heading down the street alone.

His thoughts wandered back to inside the bar. He had been trying to decide which woman was the better mark when he excused himself to the bathroom. On his way down the hall that led back to the bar he found the petite one with the dark hair waiting for him. She had pushed him against the wall and kissed him. Red X closed his eyes let go of his inhibitions, grabbing her waist and pulling her more firmly against him. But after several minutes he pushed her away and stammered an excuse about having to go. And now here he was walking through the cool evening, not minding where his feet were taking him, analyzing the evening and trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.

Flirting with those girls had not been as fun as normal. He was charismatic, he was charming, and he was more than good looking. He wasn't being conceited, it was the truth, and it was a fact that he used to his advantage often. Both of those women had twittered and found reasons to touch his arm or his hand, all as usual. But he found himself wanting more.

They had spoken of superficial things, despite a few of his attempts to steer the conversation into deeper subject matter – or at least to the subject of _good_ music but even there he had been disappointed – and he found himself, more than once, betting that Raven could hold a better conversation with more wit mid battle than these women could on their best of days.

And then the one that physically reminded him of Raven had kissed him and he tried to lose himself in their similarities. She was small like Raven, dark of hair, fiery . . . all things he had assumed he could get lost in. But where everything about his time with Raven was hyper focused – fire that burned without consuming him, electricity that jolted through him and woke ever part of him without making him tense – things with this girl were dulled and unsatisfying. It wasn't what he needed and certainly wasn't what he _wanted_ and he'd found himself needing to get away from her altogether. If possible, he was more frustrated than he was before he left his condo and he was at a loss on what to do about it.

He reached a small park and recognized it, realizing that he had walked to the edge of the bay. Standing over the water on an island right before him and standing on it, keeping watch over the city, was Titans Tower. Even his subconscious was drawing him inevitably closer to her. He thought on the idiocy of the plan that suddenly bloomed in his mind. It only took a minute of wrestling with the consequences and complications before he turned and ran back for his Red X suit.

It wasn't much later that he was perched on a beam under the bridge the crossed the bay near the tower, using his tech to analyze the tower's security measures. There was a scanner that surrounded the tower that was meant to alert them to an outside presence. It was wide enough in its radius to prevent the technology of the Red X belt that Robin had built from teleporting to the tower without setting off the alarms. One would have to teleport from the edge of the shield and would barely make it onto the island proper, and would set off all the alarms in the process.

Luckily for Red X, he hadn't been able to resist the temptation to tinker with the belt and he had extended the distance that he could go with a single jump. Far enough that he could pop into the tower itself, which was not warded so the very woman he was risking this for could teleport in and out without setting off security every time.

He appeared on the roof of the tower, knowing it was safe from the shield since he'd seen the empath do it before, deciding he'd be less likely to appear in front of a Titan that way than if he appeared in the building proper. But no sooner than he had appeared he heard the door to the rooftop open. He dove behind a storage shed nearby and he could swear his blood rushed so hard that he could feel it in every capillary when he saw that it was none other than the Titan he had come to see. Not even kissing that other woman had made him feel what he felt just by _seeing_ Raven.

She looked weary, carrying herself like one about to drop with exhaustion, limping slightly as she favored her right leg. She held her hand over her forehead, thumb and forefinger at her temples as she groaned. She stood at the edge of the roof and sat down, crossing her legs and looking out over the lit up cityscape. She began to float in the air and Red X could hear her chanting softly. He wanted her, he _needed_ her, but _she_ needed her meditation; he knew that from his extensive research on each Titan. He was surprised by his altruism, his consideration for her needs, but as much as he wanted to stalk over to her and take her in his arms he knew that she would be better off after her meditation. And the edge of the tension that had been building in him was already being relieved just by being in her presence so he sat in the shadow of the shed and watched the moonlight dance on her skin as she hovered, trying to figure out how long he should let her meditate before he would be unable to help himself.

He heard the door open again and saw Robin walk into his line of view, approaching Raven. He, too, saw her meditating and stood for a moment watching her as if torn between saying something and taking his leave.

"Staying or leaving, Robin?" she asked without breaking her pose. "The lurking is distracting."

Robin let out a small laugh and ran his hand nervously through his hair.

"I just wanted to check on you," he said, stepping up to stand beside her as he overlooked the city as well. "More than a week on the road chasing leads is never easy for you, cooped up with everyone. And then that last fight, your leg . . . I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

_Well that explains their absence_, Red X thought to himself, feeling a relief at knowing she hadn't been avoiding him intentionally and hadn't been simply ignoring his acts of trying to get her attention.

She stopped levitating and sat beside him, pulling her knees up under her chin.

"Thank you, Robin, but I'm fine. Nothing a couple of days of sleep won't cure, and some healing once I've recovered some energy." She smirked through her weariness and looked up at him. He smiled down at her in response and nodded.

"I'll try to keep Beast Boy out of your hair, if that would help."

"Gods, _please_," she sighed as she let out a short, dry laugh.

Red X was balling his hands in fists as he watched how effortless and comfortable their exchange was. There was nothing getting in the way between them, since they were both on the right side of the law and spent so much time with one another, and he found himself surprisingly jealous of their obvious closeness.

Robin sat beside her and she leaned her head on his shoulder. He leaned his head against hers and sighed.

"To be honest I had been more than half afraid that we'd have to deal with Red X as soon as we got home," Robin confessed. "I've heard he's been particularly active while we were gone."

Raven lifted her head and looked at him quizzically.

"He has?"

Robin kept his gaze on the city. "According to the reports, yes. He's been pulling jobs all over the city. I have to say that as much as I want him caught I'm selfishly glad that we missed his last caper by more than a few hours."

He finally turned to her and brushed an errant strand of hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear.

"He's been messing with you a lot lately and doing something to your emotions. I'm just glad that he wasn't here to make things harder for you today. Whatever he's been saying to you, whatever he's done that you don't want to talk about . . . I _will_ stop it, okay? I will make this stop for you."

They stared at each other for some time without words and Red X's fury only grew. He felt a possessiveness rise up in him at the obvious connection those two had with each other and he balled his fists at his side.

"Sorry," Robin sighed, turning back to the view of the city once more. "I shouldn't have brought him up at all, not after you've been so taxed from this last mission. I'm sorry I interrupted your meditation."

"Weirdly, even this short meditation has been helpful," she continued, her brow furrowing in confusion as if just realizing something. "Just getting up on this roof was . . . calming, somehow. Maybe it was just the time alone. Or maybe just being home."

She _did_ already look like some of the weariness had melted from her. Red X wondered if it was, indeed, the short meditation or if she, like him, was somehow comforted by their shared presence. Even if she was unaware of it. Some of his rage ebbed at the thought that she might feel something from him that she did not get with Robin.

"I'll leave you to it, then," he said, rising from his seat and turning to go, trailing his fingertips along her shoulder in a familiar gesture as he went. "Thank you," he said over his shoulder after taking a few steps. "I couldn't have done this mission without you, Raven."

She nodded and he turned back to walk to the door. She watched him as he went, her face pained and longing. Red X felt his blood grow cold as the realization hit him: She was in love with Robin.

She eventually shook her head and looked down at the rooftop before turning around and crossing her legs once more. Red X watched Robin go, determined to show himself to Raven once he had, but Robin hesitated at the door to the stairs leading down into the tower. He looked back at Raven and Red X saw a look cross his face before he descended the stairs, the door closing behind him.

_Revelations all over the place tonight_, he thought, his blood going from cold to boiling.

He stepped out from the shadow of the shed and walked through the moonlight to approach her, not being able to keep away from her any longer. He was mere paces from her before she sprang up and turned to face him. He stopped in his tracks, holding his hands up and hoping that she wouldn't attack him outright or alert the others.

"Hey, Little Bird," he soothed. "I'm not here for trouble. I just . . . I had to see you." He surprised himself with his honesty and silently cursed himself for it. "I . . ." he sighed, lost for any semblance of eloquence. "I _had_ to see you."

She stood staring at him for a moment before he saw the tension release from her body.

"Thank the gods," she breathed as she ran to him, treading lightly on her injured leg, and threw her arms around him. He returned her embrace, sighing in relief and surprise, and simply held her for several minutes. He could feel her relax slowly in his arms and he smiled behind his mask at this unexpected reaction to his appearance. He laid his head on hers and he could smell her hair through his mask, like earl gray tea and lavender.

"Are you okay, Little Bird?" he asked, finally breaking the silence. "You don't look like you're having a great time with that leg."

"It's nothing," she said, her face still buried in his chest. "A hazard of the job. It'll heal once I get my energy back."

"Should I leave?" he asked. She looked at him, surprised by his selfless offer. "If you need time to recover . . ."

She shook her head and laid it back on his chest.

"No," she whispered. "No, please stay." Something in Red X's chest swelled at her plea. He tightened his embrace and laid his head back on hers. "I don't know why you're here but I am so glad. Despite the war with my emotions I . . . I sleep better on nights after we meet. I am . . . calmer, like I have more control of my powers even though I am less in control of my emotions. I don't know why this is happening, and I don't know why you're back now or why you keep coming back, but I _am_ grateful."

"I've been losing my mind without you here, Little Bird," he confessed. "Heists pulled strictly for your benefit and you weren't there. I . . . do better when you're around too." He gave a small laugh. "I've grown accustomed to your face, Sunshine."

She barked out a small laugh into his chest in response."Seriously? We're doing cheesy song lyrics now, X? I didn't know you had it in you."

He laughed with her. "You bring out surprising sides of me, Little Bird. And apparently bring something to my being that I can't describe. Peace? I don't know, Little Bird. But I _do_ know that I used to have the most terrible nightmares until that night that I kissed you and that these last two weeks without you have seen their return. It's like I'm going through withdrawals and it's just as painful."

He stroked her hair and held her close. "You're scaring me, Sunshine. I assumed, at first, that we were just giving in to some kind of suppressed carnal desire, but I don't think either of us can deny now that there's something else to this. I don't _do_ attached. But here I am, sneaking into the last place in the world I should think about sneaking, and I get a sense of relief just _seeing_ you. I've heard you called a witch before, but I don't think I ever agreed with it more until now. How else do you explain what I can only call bewitchment?"

She pulled back and looked into his masked face.

"How long have you been up here?" she asked, her brow furrowing in thought.

"Since, seriously, just seconds before you," he said, brushing hair from her face, jealousy from when Robin had done the same thing fading from him as he stood with her.

She looked at the floor and hummed thoughtfully.

"What is it, Little Bird?"

"I was _exhausted_ when I stepped onto this rooftop. I only had a few minutes to meditate before Robin came up here . . ."

She paused and looked back up at Red X, surprise in her expression until the mischievous ghost of a smile crossed her face.

"What?" he asked.

"I mean, congratulations on not attacking or at least antagonizing him, X. Staying hidden must have been absolute torture for you."

He laughed at that and drew her to him again.

"Like I said, you bring out surprising sides of me."

"Apparently that's true of me as well. I feel so much better than I did before I stepped out on this roof. And I can . . . _feel_ something when you're around me. I have this weird mental psychic bond with Robin – which is a long story that I will explain later – and this . . . this feels weirdly similar. But . . . completely different. Our time apart has only emphasized for me that this was more than something physical but as to what it is . . . I don't have an explanation for that. I mean . . . part of me has fought this since the beginning, yet we keep getting pulled together, despite my intentions. And I don't know what to do with that."

"I don't know, Little Bird. I had a thought for a long minute that this might be some kind of Titans plan to coerce me to your side," he joked.

She turned serious and pulled her head off his chest to look in dead on to convey her conviction.

"If there's one thing you can be sure of, X, it's that messing with people's minds, with their free will, is at the top of the unforgivable sins list with me. That will never have to be something you fear from me."

He stroked her face and saw her expression soften.

"Hey, I'm sorry, Little Bird. It was just a poor joke. I didn't think about your father, the destiny he tried to impose on you."

She nodded and lay her head back onto his chest. "I just wanted you to know that whatever this is it is _not_ something that I created. I can't explain it any more than you can, but whatever this is seems real for us both. So what do we do with it now? What does it mean?"

She looked up at him again as she felt him move and saw him working off the bottom portion of his mask once more. Her pulse quickened at what she knew was coming and whatever part of her was still in utter confusion about what any of this meant was silenced by the part that knew what simultaneous passion and peace would soon be found with him.

"I means," he said, lifting her chin with his finger, "that whatever this is has been beneficial to us both. It means that we let whatever this is _be_ what it is." He kissed her, torturously slow and deep, relishing in the feelings she elicited in him before he broke the kiss. "And we figure out the rest later."

She stood on her toes and crashed her lips back on his and he chuckled against them as he grabbed her thighs and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled herself against him and he felt a spark come to life inside him. _This_ was how it was supposed to feel. _This_ was how it was supposed to be. He had never been one to believe in fate or soulmates or anything as unbelievably cliche as that but the way they felt so right to each other seemed to scream that he had been wrong.

He felt her soul self wrap around them. He had thought it would be cold – Dr. Light had always talked about how cold it was – but it felt warm and comforting as it surrounded him and then dropped away. It was dark where they reappeared and the hyper vigilance inside of him from years of thieving convinced him to pry his lips away from hers and take in his surroundings, finding himself no longer on the roof but in a darkly furnished room with a large four poster canopied bed and shelves full of books.

Raven grabbed his chin and tuned his face back to hers.

"Just so you know," she whispered, ghosting her lips over his, "very few people have been allowed in my room."

"Practically inviting a rake into your bed, Little Bird? How very irresponsible of you."

"You should be greatly honored. Few have been allowed in my room . . . fewer still to my bed."

He flicked a hand at the clasp of her cloak, undoing it and pulling the fabric from her shoulder before tossing it aside. He strode over to her bed and deposited her on it, needing no more invitation than that. He followed her into the soft bedding. He stroked her face with the backs of his fingers. "You sure you want to invite _me_, Little Bird?"

"I thought you said to let whatever this is _be_ what it is. Unless you're having a change of heart. You can always just leave and save me my dignity."

"Well that doesn't sound anything like me," he laughed darkly as he kissed her again, sliding his knee between her legs and tangling his fingers in her dark hair.

He traced a finger down her throat, through the hollow between her collarbones and made a low rumble of satisfaction in the back of his throat that indicated his pleasure. She wasn't sure how far she was willing to let this go, or how far they _could_ go if he still wanted to keep his identity secret, but the decision was made for her as the alarms started sounding and flashing though the tower.

Red X jolted up, looking around.

"Relax," she said, sensing the reason for his panic. "It's not you, it's not the proximity alarm. Crime alert. I have to go."

He groaned and leaned back into her, kissing her soundly again. "Do you have to go _right_ now?"

The banging on the door answered him as Robin's voice came through from the hall.

"Raven! I know you're still exhausted but we have to go! It's Slade."

Red X rolled off her and thudded his head back on the pillow. "Fuck that kid. Boy Blunder always seems to be getting in my way."

She got out of the bed and looked down at him, a small smile turning up just the corner of her mouth. "Help me with this?"

She slid her arms back into her leotard and then bared her back to him, her zipper still undone. He traced up her spine again, but this time with the tip of his tongue, as he zipped her back up. She shuddered at his touch before turning to face him.

"Until next time? I'll assume you can find your way out. Please don't do anything stupid."

Red X rose from the bed, and laughed.

"That doesn't sound anything like me either."

She laughed with him as he turned toward the window for a moment before pausing and turning back.

"Stay safe," he said, his voice becoming serious.

She looked at him and nodded. He sighed as he replaced his mask and gave her his cocky salute before pushing the glowing button on his belt and vanishing.

It wasn't until she donned her cloak and pulled up the hood, ready to head out, that she realized that nothing had broken. She had given in to what she felt and nothing in her room or on the roof had broken. She didn't have time to puzzle over it now, but she was going to have a lot to figure out when she got back.

O • O • O • O

Raven could hear Robin shout her name in a panic. She turned to look behind her and managed to catch a glimpse of Slade's two toned mask. She tried to dodge away from him, but her bad leg – which hadn't had a chance to heal yet – buckled under her. She heard Slade chuckle in a sinister manner before she felt the impact against the side of her head that exploded her vision before everything went completely dark.

Robin screamed out her name again as he watched the ruthless blow and saw the red spray of her blood mist the air. He saw her fall from the rooftop and down toward the street. He knocked aside the slade-bot that he had been fighting and ran toward her, shooting his grappling gun at the nearest building, but knowing that there was no way he would be able to reach her in time. Slade stood at the building's edge watching the dark Titan fall and ready to see what it would do to his former apprentice when he watched her body hit the ground several stories below. Maybe it would be the thing to finally break Robin. He was intrigued to find out.

But before her body could impact the ground a blur shot through the sky and knocked her sideways mid air before vanishing and reappearing several blocks away, just above the ground and skidding across the pavement from the momentum of the fall before coming to a stop. Robin stopped in his tracks and Slade straightened in surprise when they recognized Red X crouched in the settling dust with Raven in his arms. Robin's eyes narrowed and he looked between Red X and Slade, trying to figure out whether he should get to Raven or take out his nemesis. He was torn, but he saw Red X lay Raven on the ground and stroke the hair out of her face, seemingly whispering something in her ear. Robin was running toward her before he realized he had made a decision.

Red X gripped Raven's shoulders and shook her gently, but her eyes remained resolutely shut.

"Raven! Fuck, Raven you've got to wake up! Raven!"

He could see the blood pooling on the concrete beneath her and he swore, holding pressure to the side of her head where Slade had struck her.

"Shit. Raven, don't do this. Please. You have to stay with me. Fucking stay with me!"

He could hear rapid footsteps approaching and looked up to see Robin racing toward him. He swore again.

"Raven! Fuck! Raven, I have to go. I can't let them take me. But your friends are coming, Little Bird. You're safe. I wish I could stay. Just . . . please . . . please be okay. You have to be okay. You have to be."

He stroked her hair back again – more torn at the thought of leaving her than he had anticipated being – but straightened and teleported away when he saw Robin mere steps from him. He knew Robin would take care of her, but a knot in the pit of his stomach refused to loosen. He couldn't believe he'd left her.

Robin slid on the gravel scattered across the pavement and knelt at Raven's side. He could see the puddle of blood growing around her head and he ripped off his cape, using it to put pressure on her wound. He pulled out his communicator and called for the others, letting them know that Raven was down and she wasn't healing fast enough. His mind raced with his options but with Cyborg reporting back that Starfire was unconscious and Beast Boy approaching Robin cradling his clearly broken arm he came to the chilling realization that none of those options got her to the tower's med bay or the hospital in time. He started to panic. The alternative wasn't conceivable. He would _not_ entertain the possibility. But cold dread bloomed in his heart regardless.

He felt a rush of air beside him and Red X was standing there, a button on his belt flashing. Robin had made that belt and he knew Red X was running low on teleportations. Before he could get a word out at the thief, Red X spoke.

"I can get here to help," he said, standing in a defensive stance in case Robin made a move against him. Raven's blood was dripping from his hands from when he'd tried to staunch her bleeding. "I can help her. Let me help her."

Robin stared at him hard. He didn't trust Red X in the least – even less so since the night he had kissed Raven, and progressively less with each encounter they'd had with him since then – but he could feel Raven's warm blood soaking through his cape and dripping down his gloved hand. He was sure the dripping sound of her blood falling from his gloves to the pavement would haunt his nightmares. Whatever animosity he had toward the thief he couldn't let Raven suffer for it. He nodded a single, curt nod.

"Tower or hospital?" Red X asked, bending down and scooping Raven into his arms bridal style.

Robin thought for a moment.

"Hospital," he said finally. "She'll have a better chance there. More equipment. More experience. More hands."

Red X nodded and reached for his belt. Robin's hand clenched around Red X's wrist in an iron grip before he could push the button.

"If you try to pull anything and she gets hurt I will fucking kill you myself," he growled. He released Red X's arm and his eyes grew wide with understanding under his mask. As much as he mocked the hero Red X knew that he was a dangerous opponent and he could tell that Robin meant every word of his threat. A look of fear crossed his face and he was glad Robin couldn't see it. Robin stepped back and watched as Red X and Raven vanished. He pulled out his communicator again.

"Titans, get to the hospital. Raven needs us."


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: This story has been particularly fun to write! Just wait to see all the twists and turns in store. ;) Thanks everyone for the support and the views!

**Chapter 5**

Raven's head was screaming. She was awake but couldn't bring herself to open her eyes; she just wanted the throbbing in her head to stop and she didn't think exposing her eyes to any kind of light was going to help. Her healing was correcting the internal damage from the wound on her head, she could feel it at work, but it didn't stop it from being painful. Her senses slowly returned to her and as they did her brow furrowed in annoyance.

What in the hells was that incessant beeping?!

But through the monotone beeps, hisses, and other strange noises another sound came to her attention. She tried to wrap her mind around it before her brain finally deciphered them as words. She locked in to the words, trying to make them make sense and as she focused the words came into clarity.

The voice beside her was surprising and her eyes finally flitted open and she stared at the skull caricature mask of Red X. He sat beside her bed in a chair pulled close to her and he was leaning against the arm of it, reading from a worn hardcover book held gently in his hands.

"'There she weaves by night and day, a magic web with colors gay. She has heard a whisper say, a curse is on her if she stay to look down to Camelot. She knows not what the curse may be, and so she weaveth steadily -'"

"'And little other care hath she, the Lady of Shalott,'" Raven croaked out with a weary voice, finishing the line of the poem.

"Raven?"

He looked up to see her eyes open and focused on him. He dropped the book on the bed as he reached out to cup her face in his hand, letting out a relieved sigh. She looked around her and realized for the first time that she was in a hospital bed. The constant noises and beeps were coming from the monitors she was hooked to.

The realization didn't make the noise any less annoying.

"What . . . " she started, cradling her forehead in her palm.

"You – you were bleeding out," he said, softly. Raven looked at him as she realized he had turned off the voice synthesizer on his mask. She could hear the relief and concern in his voice. "Slade had hit you with something. He hit you . . . _so_ hard and you were falling off the building. I caught you, I got you to the ground, but . . . you were bleeding out."

"You brought me here?" she asked, sitting up and wincing. She leaned back against the headboard. "You're an idiot. You need to go before the others find you here. They'll look for me."

"They already know you're here," he said. "Robin was coming toward us after I caught you and you weren't moving. I – I panicked. I teleported away – I knew Robin would look after you – but . . . I couldn't leave you like that. I couldn't chance that they wouldn't be able to get you to help in time. I came back and told Robin I could get you to help. He told me to bring you here. I got you to the E.R. and I left before the other Titans arrived. I'm not as stupid as you might think."

She smiled a small smile, trying to ease some of the nerves he was showing in his stuttering speech. "Why are you here, then?" She looked to the book that he had abandoned on the bed beside her. "And don't tell me it was to read me Tennyson." She reached out to cup his masked cheek for a moment. "Don't get me wrong, X, I genuinely appreciate the gesture, but there's more to it than that."

He looked down at the book before lifting his head to her again. She was unnerved by this Red X who lacked his usual bravado and overconfidence. She had seen a surprising side of him on the roof of the tower, but this was different.

He was shaken and she had _never_ seen him shaken.

"I had to see if you were okay. I couldn't stay away without knowing you were going to be okay. I brought you here and . . . it was worse than I thought. You weren't just bleeding out, your . . . your skull was shattered and your brain was swelling. They took you into surgery and they wouldn't tell me anything. Then you were healing so fast _afterward_ they didn't know what to do about it. You were _dying_ when you got here and then you were finally healing and meta human healing is _not_ something they're familiar with. I had to come and see you for myself, with my own eyes. I had to know you were okay."

She stared at him for several long moments, trying to assess this side of Red X, this part of him that was the same vulnerable side she had seen on the roof of the tower. She laid a hand on his gloved one laying on her bed.

"Thank you," she said genuinely. "I know what you risked to do this; to get me here and then to check on me. You didn't have to."

"Yes I did," he said in uncharacteristic seriousness. "I could have lost you . . ."

He brushed a strand of hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. He cleared his throat.

"Can't lose my new prize now can I? I always get my mark," he said, the cockiness in his voice returning.

Raven could see through it now.

"How long have I been out?" she asked, changing the subject to save his ego.

"Almost twenty-four hours. It just got dark again."

"A whole day . . ." she trailed off. "It must have been bad. I almost never take that long."

He looked down at his lap. Although she couldn't see his face behind the mask she could tell that it had been frightening for him. He cared. Between their conversation the night before and everything that had transpired since, he was showing that he cared. This thing between them was growing stronger and she could see that they were going to get swallowed by it. And she was surprised that she didn't think that was a bad thing.

They started talking. Mostly Raven started a casual conversation to take his mind off of the trauma of the previous day. They started with Tennyson, Raven showing surprise that he was a fan and how he was a personal favorite of hers. He had laughed and mentioned that once upon a time he had had a very expensive education, though he refused to go further into detail than that. He had told her to keep the book. Something to remember him by when they were apart.

Their conversation moved through a variety of subjects from there. They talked about the task that had taken the Titans away for over a week, about the bond with Robin she had mentioned earlier and how all of that had come to pass, eventually even about the thing that was growing between them. Although they still couldn't make out what that might be and had given up on defining it. Some things didn't need explanation.

After a time Raven realized that her headache had dissipated and she pulled away the loose wrapping they had left on her head and found the skin beneath unbroken, and the bone beneath that whole and solid. Red X was relieved when she told him and the last of his tension seemed to finally leave his body.

They talked through most of the night, which was strange for her. Until the roof of the tower the night before the most they'd ever said to each other before were exchanged insults and sexually tense banter. They slipped into a companionable conversation that neither one of them had expected.

She found that, in addition to the weird comfort they had around each other, she actually _liked_ him. If she had met him on the street and they had started talking, she would have genuinely enjoyed his company and that settled another level of rightness over what they had. Another layer of them that fit and made sense. She looked at him hours later after glancing at the clock and scoffed.

"Gods, you really are an idiot," she said.

He looked at her confused. "What?"

"We've been talking for hours," she explained. "My friends are bound to come check on me soon."

Red X chuckled. "The visiting hours haven't started yet, Little Bird, and they are strictly enforced. You should have seen Robin's face when they told him that he had to leave until visiting hours tomorrow."

"Didn't stop you," she pointed out.

"I'm a rogue," he pointed out while winking at her, "as well as a rake, and I earned that title by being a charming one. And I'll not leave my prize so easily."

She smirked at him, before lowering her eyes to the book in her hands as they rested on her lap. She had to admit, whatever his intentions were it was nice having his attention, both in the intense physical way of their past encounters and this unusual comfortable companionship she felt with him now. She had been pining for Robin – and then trying to get over those feelings – for so long that she had forgotten what it was like to be wanted in return.

"Good thing for you that Robin's following the rules then," she stated. "He'll kill you if he sees you. He's never forgiven you for stealing the suit."

"Stolen more than that, now," he muttered under his breath, remembering the look that had crossed Robin's face looking at her on the roof, and the blatant threat that he had made when Raven's life was at stake.

"What?" Raven asked, turning to him, not having caught what he said.

"Nothing, Little Bird," he dismissed, waving his hand. He couldn't bring himself to tell her what he now knew. She was still in love with Robin and he couldn't chance ruining what was happening between them with the knowledge that her leader might feel the way for her that she felt for him. It was selfish, yes, but they also weren't his feelings to tell. If Robin missed his chance then that would be _his_ problem and his alone. Red X certainly wasn't about to do him any favors.

"And don't worry about my death at the hands of the Boy Blunder quite yet," he continued nonchalantly. "He won't be back until visiting hours start. The nurses don't like him and I still find it _highly_ amusing."

"What do you mean they don't like him?"

"I mean after antagonizing the nurses like a fucking mother hen he went outside to take a breather. I came in and told them all that he's a jilted ex with a temper but that he _does_ honesty care for you and that they shouldn't hold it against him."

She looked at him in disbelief.

"You did _not_."

He chucked again at her aghast expression. "Oh I did. And _then_ he went and threw a fit about being asked to leave and to respect visiting hours. I think one of those nurses had an ex like him and she wasn't particularly kind. He didn't respond well. You can see why their opinion of him isn't very high. Why do you think they haven't come in to check on you and kick me out yet? I'm a very convincing liar."

"Wait," she said, dread growing in her. "What did you tell them to convince them to let _you_ stay?"

He smiled at her in a way that could only be described as wicked, Raven could sense that even through his mask.

"I told them you were my fiancée."

"Excuse me?!" she choked out. "And they _believed_ you?! They just let _Red X_ walk in here and claim to be my fiancée and they just _believed_ you?"

"Charming, remember? And I didn't come in here as Red X. I walked in here as myself, I put the suit on after they promised some privacy and peace for the night because I can't very well put you in the position of knowing my identity and having to decide what to do with that knowledge, now can I? The staff was quite taken with the thought of us together, actually. Said we made a beautiful couple. I told them that your abilities were unstable and that a familiar face would help spare their equipment from your powers lashing out and they agreed to give us some privacy as long as your vitals didn't spike."

Raven cradled her head in her hands.

"Have you _ever_ considered the ramifications of what would happen if hospital security footage caught what you looked like? What if someone were to come in and see you now in the suit and connect the dots?! What if Robin finds out and checks the tapes?!"

"Please," he said flippantly, momentarily reverting to the part of the Red X persona that made her want to punch him in the face. "I made sure there was a camera malfunction. Although I'm flattered that you care about keeping my secret identity, Little Bird."

"But the staff has _seen_ you, you idiot! They could describe you to Robin. He _is_ the boy genius detective you know." She looked up at him and smacked him in the shoulder. "I thought you were just an idiot but now I think you might actually be mad. You risked _everything_ coming here like this."

He shifted from his seat and sat on the bed beside her, leaning over her in a menacing manner.

"Maybe I don't care."

"Robin will kill you if he figures out who you are. Best case scenario you're in jail for a long time."

He leaned in closer.

"Maybe I don't care," he growled. He hovered by her ear before whispering, "Maybe the prize is worth the risk."

The familiar and far from unpleasant shudder that came so often when she was close to him trembled down her spine. Her eyes darted to all the complex and expensive equipment in the room that her emotions could destroy. This could be a costly rendezvous. But she then remembered that nothing had broken the last time at the tower. She still hadn't had the time to sort that part out yet.

She could feel his masked face brush against the side of hers as he nuzzled her.

"Do you trust me?" he whispered in her ear.

She thought. She thought back to their recent encounters and back to the encounters before that as well. She couldn't find an instant where he had actually tried to hurt her. Subdue her and her friends, sure, but he had never tried to _hurt_ her. And their more recent times together were . . . intimate, close, and comforting. The night before he had confessed to feeling the same closeness that she had felt and he had been so tender, so vulnerable.

And he had saved her not long after. He had no reason to do so, he didn't even have to reveal that he was there. He was in the clear, but he had saved her anyway. And when he had done so and managed to get away he had returned to save her again. And then he had risked exposure coming to her tonight. Those were three instances all in the same day that showed he had no reason or will to hurt her. It seemed quite the opposite.

She _did_ trust him. She nodded.

"Close your eyes," he whispered. She complied.

She could feel him pull away from her, but he remained seated on the bed beside her hip. She heard a rustling of fabric and just when she was about to question what he was doing she felt his breath against her ear again.

"I trust you, too, Little Bird."

Then his lips were on hers, forceful and hungry. She responded in kind with her own fervor and need. She slid her hand up the back of his head to pull his face closer to hers and she felt his soft hair between her fingers. Something she could only feel if he had taken off his mask. Completely. She gasped and he immediately shifted and feathered his lips over her ear.

"Keep them closed, Little Bird. I'm trusting you."

She tightened her grip on his hair in her fingers and pulled his lips back to her, deepening the kiss when she realized that, again like the night before on the rooftop and then in her room, nothing in the room was exploding or breaking. Something about how he felt with her that moment was comfortable and right and soothing. Something about him was keeping her emotions in check and balancing the chaos that usually roiled within her. And it was so liberating – such a relief that she had never felt before – that she pulled him closer, deeper. She felt her head hit the pillow as he pushed her down and lay partially beside her and partially atop her, his hands roaming up and down her body, the beeping from the monitors increasing in intensity as her heart rate rose.

She moaned at the heat of his touch and still, nothing broke around them and she wanted nothing more than to lose herself in him. She had never had the luxury of letting go like this and it was an intoxicating experience that she relished and was loathe to give up. If _this_ is what this was like for normal people then they were taking what they had for granted.

He pulled away with a sigh that turned into a groan as his head dropped on the pillow next her her. She was about to ask him what was wrong when she heard Robin's raised voice from the nurse's desk.

"You kept me up all night," she admonished jokingly, laughing into his hair, her eyes still closed. He let out a laugh into her pillow before rising to lay light kisses all over her face. He rested his forehead on hers and sighed again.

"Next time I keep you up all night it'll be worth it, I promise you that."

"Go," she whispered against his lips. "Take your stolen kisses before you get caught."

She felt his breath on her ear before he whispered, "Kisses are only the start, Little Bird. Just wait until you see what I steal next."

She felt his warmth leave her and she almost whined at his absence. She was starting to wonder just how deep she was getting into this and starting to get concerned at how attached she was already feeling. She felt him stroke her hair before she felt the slight rush of wind that indicated his teleportation.

She opened her eyes and found herself alone. She sighed and looked around the room. Everything was in its place and unbroken. This was unfamiliar territory and she didn't know what to make of it yet. She reached for the book that he had left for her, but as her fingers grazed the fabric cover they encountered something different. She touched the soft petals of the purple calla lily that lay there atop the book. It was beautiful and rested on a square of paper with a red X scrawled on it. She stared at it, her forehead wrinkled in confusion.

_How did he know?_ she wondered. _They aren't a common flower here in Jump; but how did he even know?_

She grabbed the square of paper and flipped it over. In a sharp, even script was written:

** A proper thief researches his prize. I know they're your favorite.**

** A rare find in this messed up city, just like you. -X**

A smile came to her face as she tucked the paper in the book and slid both under her pillow and away from prying eyes. Likewise she took the lily and laid it gently under the covers by her pillow. The door to her room opened not a minute later.

Robin entered, saw her awake, and relief washed over his face. He strode quickly to her side held her shoulders so he could look at her.

"Raven," he sighed. "Are you okay? I've been just . . . pacing downstairs all night. You were out for so long, the whole day."

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I woke up early last night."

He looked down before meeting her eyes again. "And you woke up alone. I'm so sorry, these . . . nurses for some reason do _not_ like me."

Raven snorted a laugh, before covering it with a cough and hoping Robin didn't catch the slight as she remembered what Red X had said about his conversations with the nurses.

"No?" she finally choked out. "What happened?"

Robin poured her a cup of water from the pitcher on the side table, hoping to ease her cough. She took the proffered cup and took a sip.

"I don't know why they have something against me," he started, "I _know_ what a pain I was all day I just . . . I had never seen you like that, unable to heal quickly enough. I think the last time that was close was that time with Adonis and Beast Boy. I had to go take a breather toward the evening but . . ."

"But?" she asked, taking another sip to hide her smirk.

"But I got back and they were just . . . dismissive, I guess. One of them in particular. I don't know what happened but suddenly it was all about protocol and visiting hours and privileges how only family was allowed and such. It was just a weird shift, even though I was probably being an ass."

Raven coughed on her water and took a second to recover. Hearing Robin swear was rare, but all it did now was remind her of Red X. The two sides of her life were bleeding together and she didn't quite know what to do with that.

"That sounds about right," she joked, smirking.

"Ouch, Raven," he said in mock shock and hurt, his eyes, though, were smiling at her. "You're supposed to be my best friend."

"And what kind of best friend would I be if I just let an opportunity for a barb like that just pass by?"

Robin let out a laugh and she could feel the comfort of their bond hum in the back of her mind. He had been the closest she had to an emotional connection with someone . . . until Red X. Her emotions were free around the thief like with no one else, but there was still something about her connection with Robin that she couldn't deny.

"So what, exactly, happened?" she asked, playing the role of someone who hadn't already been filled in on the events during her unconsciousness by a self proclaimed rake who seemed strangely attached to her.

He explained the events from his perspective but it lined up with exactly what Red X had recounted to her. She listened and then nodded when his story was done.

"So when do I get to go home?" she asked, settling into her pillows. "I mean, my head's killing me but I can feel the healing and I suppose my consciousness is a good sign."

Robin laughed again. "Well the doctors certainly aren't used to having a meta human in their ward. Once you . . . once you were out of the worst of the surgery, they got some more blood in you, and stitched up your wound your healing finally started to catch up. Your wound closed and your skin popped out those stitches within the first couple of hours. I kept trying to tell them that you would be up and about soon but they insisted on keeping you here until you woke just in case. But I talked with them this morning and they're ready to release you later today after the last round of the latest tests come back, assuming you regained consciousness."

Raven blew out a deep breath and leaned her head back against the wall. "I guess I can wait the day."

"So, everyone else is waiting out there. They would only let us in here one at a time. But since you're out later today do you want me to let you have your peace? I can ask them to wait."

"You're going to try to tell Starfire that she can't come in here and see for herself that I'm breathing and awake?" she joked, hoping to lighten the mood for him. "You are the bravest person I know, Robin, but that might be suicidal."

He grabbed her hand and looked her in the eye, still solemn.

"I'm serious. You really scared me yesterday and if you had that much trouble healing it might be best for you to have some peace. But it's up to you. Do you want to see them or would you like to wait?"

She paused and thought about it for awhile.

"Would I be a terrible person if I took you up on your offer?"

He smiled at her, finally. "I wouldn't have offered if that were the case." He rose and leaned over her, surprising her by hugging her to him in a crushing embrace. He held her for awhile and she could feel him tremble, which scared her a little. He was always so steady. She could feel the anguish and relief through their bond.

"You really did scare me," he said into her hair as he rested his head on hers. "Our bond wavered, Raven." She felt him shudder at the memory. "It's never done that before. I hadn't realized how much I had grown accustomed to feeling it and having you there knowing how I feel. I've started to rely on it's strength and then it wavered and it started to feel weak. That . . . that scared me more than I can remember being scared in a long time. And I couldn't do anything. They told me how bad it was after I got here. Then – then they told me they were taking you to surgery. Raven, I've never felt more helpless."

He pulled away and held her at arms length, his expression holding more grief than she could remember seeing from him before.

"And I was angry, Raven. I was angry at Slade – I'm not sure what I would have done had we caught him, to be perfectly honest – I was angry at myself for being so damn useless, and I was angry at Red X for being the one to save you. Of all people, it had to be him."

Raven looked away for a moment before looking back to him.

"Not that I'm not grateful, Raven, I owe him . . . _everything_ for saving you. But _why_ did he save you? Why was he even there?"

"I don't know," she said truthfully. "I have no idea why he was there. I don't remember anything after the impact on the rooftop until I woke up here. His motives have always been . . . difficult to understand. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. Maybe he did it just to piss off Slade. Maybe he took me to the hospital to piss _you_ off. Who knows with him?"

She felt so bad for lying to him. She tried her best to say things that she partially believed to be true, hoping the bond would accept them as truths and that Robin wouldn't suspect her of not telling him everything.

"He _has_ seemed weirdly fixated with you lately," he mused, darkly.

"Do you _remember_ your reaction the night that he kissed me?" she asked. "If he stuck around and saw that, then I'd say he knew he pushed a button. Anyway, I can't speak for his motives, but I _am_ grateful to him. I owe him my life."

Robin looked away as he stood up. He was still wrestling with his thoughts on the matter and he certainly didn't like the thought of Raven owing anything to the criminal who had vexed him so. He couldn't figure out his motives and that, for any detective, was infuriating.

"I should go," he said, attempting to reign in his anger. "The others will be worried."

"Yeah," she said lamely. "Thank you, Robin, for being such an ass to the staff. I'm sorry I worried you, but it's always nice to know someone cares."

He turned back to her and smiled. "I'll be here when they release you. Call me if you need anything."

He tossed her communicator to her, smiled, and nodded before leaving and closing the door behind him. She let out a big breath and leaned her head back on the wall in relief. She hadn't revealed anything about Red X. But she had no idea where her life was going now. She had just lied to her best friend to cover the mysterious motives of a thief. She was going to have to deal with the repercussions of trying to reconcile both sides of her life eventually and she had absolutely no idea how to do it.

She reached for her cup on the side table and her fingers found a small glass jar instead. She grabbed it and looked at it closely. It held what looked like loose leaf tea.

She pulled the cork from the bottle and inhaled the scent from within. Earl Grey. The cream blend that she liked from a very particular tea shop. It hadn't been there on the nightstand when Robin had entered, she was sure. She would have seen it when Robin had poured her that cup of water. _He_ had left it. He had left it for her.

She flopped down onto the pillows and locked her eyes on the ceiling, Robin's gesture and the mystery of how he even knew to get it for her laying another layer of confusion on her already overwhelmed brain. It was the last thing the thought of before sleep overtook her again.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Robin approached the nurse's desk, telling himself to be as civil as possible and maybe they could all leave the hospital without any kind of verbal altercation with the staff. He cleared his throat to get the attention of the nurse behind the counter and she looked up at him, giving him an almost guilty smile.

"Morning," he started with a small smile, in his most personable tone, just as he would speak to someone in Bruce's manor when his mask was off. He could be quite charming then, and he tried to channel that now. "Is Raven set to be released?"

"Yes, the paperwork's all set," she said, seemingly relieved at his calm tone. She looked at the monitors for Raven's room and sighed, facing nothing but blank screens. "I forgot, she insisted on taking out her leads. She's . . . quite the strong personality. I'm honestly surprised she didn't discharge herself against medical counsel hours ago."

Robin laughed a genuine laugh and it put her even more at ease. "She stayed put for the sake of her friends, I think," he said. "Can I see her?"

"She was still sleeping last I saw, about an hour ago," she said as she rose from her chair. " But I'll go check on her."

She walked around the desk, pausing after tuning toward Raven's room. She turned back to Robin and shifted her weight nervously.

"Hey, I just want to say that I'm sorry for being so harsh with you yesterday," she said. "I've been in some bad relationships before with overbearing and overprotective men and when Raven's fiancee told us about you it clouded my judgment. I shouldn't have let it affect how I treated you. It wasn't my place."

"Wait," he said, holding up a hand to stop her. "What are you talking about? Her fiancee?!"

"Yes," she said, smiling. "the charming, handsome, dark haired man who came in just after you left. Have you never met him? He spoke of her so lovingly. He spent most of the night up with her last night. It was technically allowed since he's her closest family but we still shouldn't have treated you so coldly."

Robin was already rushing to Raven's room before the nurse had finished talking. He threw open the door and found her bed empty and her belongings that had been bagged up on her arrival at the ER gone.

"Where is she?!" he demanded, turning on the nurse who had followed him in.

"I-I don't know," she stammered. "She should be in here."

"What do you mean you don't know?! You just let some stranger spend the night in here with her based on nothing but his word and then you lose her?!"

He threw aside her sheets as if he'd find her hidden there but instead he uncovered a purple calla lily. He stared hard at it for several moments. It was her favorite, but no one else that he knew of could have known that.. He checked in the sheets and threw the pillows aside and finally found a book. Finding a book in a place where Raven had been was not something unusual, but he couldn't figure out when and where she would have been able to get it since waking. Tennyson. She was never very open about her love for less dark and macabre poetry, but he knew that she secretly treasured them.

He flipped through the pages and as he did the note that she had tucked within its pages fluttered out. On one side was an X written in red ink. He flipped the card over and read what was written on the other side. As he did, he was filled with both fear and fury. Red X had been here. The stranger had been Red X. He had been here most of the night, which meant that Raven had lied to him this morning. She said she had woken up in the early evening and she hadn't mentioned this man who had posed as her fiancee and who happened to be wanted for his crimes.

What had happened and why had she not told him? Had she been manipulated somehow, under duress the whole time that Robin was with her and he hadn't noticed? That thought chilled him the most.

And what had Red X meant by researching his prize?

He crumpled the paper in his hands as the nurse sped from the room to double check that Raven had not somehow been released earlier and it was simply a clerical error.

Robin stood in the empty room scared, angry, and unsure of what to do next. Based off of all the evidence it only made sense that the dark haired stranger and Red X were one and the same. He grew cold with dread. He pulled out his communicator and told the others what had transpired before setting Cyborg on the task of finding a way of tracking Raven and checking hospital security footage to see if they had an image of what Red X looked like without his suit. He picked up jar of tea that he had left for her, abandoned on the nightstand, and let out a desperate sigh. He hadn't even told her how he felt and now she was gone. He had to find her. And he had to bring Red X to justice.

O • O • O • O

Raven sighed and stretched, burrowing into the pillows. She had slept so well, which was surprising being that she was in a hospital bed. But she was so comfortable and the pillows were so soft. Her eyes flew open, however, when she realized this did _not_ feel like the hospital bed she had fallen asleep in. She sat up, looked around and found herself in a king sized bed with a beautiful carved headboard, surrounded by pillows and draped in a heavy duvet. The room was sparsely furnished, but furnished with taste and care. She was alone and confused but as she leaned back against the pillows she closed her eyes as she smelled a familiar scent of coffee?m n? and cedar. It calmed her panic and she now had an idea of how she had gotten here and where she was.

"X?" she called out, pulling the duvet up over chest. She was still in the hospital gown she had been in when she fell asleep and it left her feeling surprisingly vulnerable outside of the hospital.

The door opened almost immediately, like he had been waiting outside for to wake, and Red X stepped into the room and leaned against the door frame, crossing his arms over his chest. He had tried to predict what mood she would be in when she awoke, but there were too many possibilities with her. The one that he feared most was that she would just take off and not give him a chance to explain. He looked at her and waited for her to make her move. She drew her knees up, resting her elbows on them and holding her forehead in her hands, giving him a chastising look

"The fuck?" she asked, incredulously.

He lowered his head and let out a relieved laugh. She hadn't attacked him and she was still there, not making a move to get up and bolt for the door. At least he had a chance. He pushed himself away from the door frame and walked over to her. He couldn't help thinking that she looked good in his bed. He hoped it wasn't the last time he saw her there. He sat on the bed beside her.

"Seriously," she said, dropping her hands from her face. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"Such a dirty mouth on you, Little Bird. You're bold for one who finds herself in the bed of a thief."

"A stupid, stupid thief," she quipped. "Stealing a person is generally called _kidnapping, _X. What time is it? You must have a death wish if Robin finds out you_ took me from the hospital_."

"I had a good reason. I mean, apart from getting you into my bed, which would have been reason enough."

"I'd get to the point real fast, X, before I lose interest. Or should I just leave now?"

He took off his gloves, dropped them to the floor, and placed a hand on the bed by her hip and leaned over her, forcing her to recline back on the pillows.

"Is it so bad being in my bed, Little Bird? I happen to think it's quite comfortable. Or do I need to do something more to keep your interest?" He stroked her collarbone with his free, bare hand and she felt the electric spark of his touch, skin on skin, run through her body. She took in a shaky breath and her eyes fluttered closed as his hand traveled up to her shoulder, then her neck. He stroked the side of her neck with his thumb as his fingers threaded through her hair. She opened her eyes and he found himself drowning in their violet depths. He had wanted to be upfront and tell her why he had taken her as soon as she woke but now he was leaning over her and touching her soft flesh and he could smell her scent on his sheets and he couldn't remember anything other than how good her skin felt under his fingertips.

"Close your eyes," he rasped, pulling at the back of his mask.

She wanted to argue, to make him tell her why he brought her here, but the current running through her from his bare skin was making it hard to focus. She felt so alive but still nothing around them moved or shattered and she soon found she was powerless against the flood of emotion. She closed her eyes almost immediately.

His lips were bruising against hers as he crashed into her. She felt his weight settle on top of her and she buried her hands in his hair, pulling him tight against her. Just as she was powerless to fight against this draw to him he was equally unable to resist _her_. He kissed and licked his way down the column of her throat, feeling her pulse strong and fast against his lips. He pulled down the collar of her hospital gown and continued his path of kisses down her collarbone to the swell of her breasts. Her moans were driving him crazy and he hummed in response. He started to pull her gown down farther when a loud beeping tone sounded, making Raven sit up suddenly in a panic. Red X hurried and put his mask on before she could see his face, but her eyes were on the bag full of her stuff from the hospital.

"You brought my communicator?!" she gasped, throwing aside the covers as she scrambled from the bed.. "Gods how stupid-"

"I brought your stuff," he interrupted. "I brought your clothes and everything you had with you when I brought you to the hospital. I didn't know it was in there."

She ran to the bag on the dresser that held her personal items and started tearing through it.

"I put it in there after Robin gave it back to me at the hospital. They can track it, X! They'll find you. You have to go!" She found the communicator and wasted no time smashing it against the dresser.

Red X walked up to her. "Raven. Shit, Raven!"

He finally grabbed her hands to stop her frantic destruction of the communicator when she didn't respond to him. "Stop, Little Bird. I'm not as stupid as you think I am, remember? I had Jinx ward this place right after I bought it."

She looked at him in confusion.

"Also, side note, she does _not_ like being blackmailed. But this place is safe. They can't track anything through the wards and . . . you can't use your powers to travel through them either. I had to be sure my place was safe from the Titans. They can't track your communicator, Little Bird." He looked down at the broken bits and shards of her comm before scoffing. "I mean, they _definitely_ can't _now_. It's alright. We're okay."

She sighed in relief and slumped to the floor. He knelt down beside her and pulled her to him. "That's the second time you've been afraid that I'd get caught, Little Bird. Careful, or one might be tempted to think that you actually care about a humble thief."

"I fucking hate you," she half joked, still reeling from her panic. "And you are far from humble." She took several deep breaths to calm herself before speaking again.

"What did you bring me here for, X? It wasn't just to satisfy your urges. You said you had a good reason, so what is it? Why am I here?"

He sat back on his heels and looked at her.

"I need help with a job."

"No," she said sternly. "I'm no thief, X. Whatever _this_ is between us don't think for a second that you're bringing me into that part of your life. I'm still a Titan."

He stood and held out a hand to help her up. She hesitated for moment, giving him an admonishing look to remind him that she was standing firm in her conviction, before taking his proffered hand and letting him pull her easily to her feet.

"Believe me, the people we're taking from are the worst of this city," he said. "And this is something worth stealing. But only if you feel well enough. I won't put you in danger like that." He hadn't dropped her hand yet and he twined his fingers with hers. "Do you still trust me?"

She pulled her hand out of his and looked at him dejectedly.

"I want to say that I do, X, but you _did_ just kidnap me."

He hummed behind his mask and she could swear he was smirking again. He trailed a finger up her arm as he circled her, finally resting his hand on her shoulder from behind and stroking the side of her neck. He leaned over her other shoulder and whispered in her ear.

"You were worth stealing, too."

She shivered and it had nothing to do with the temperature of the room. He wrapped his other arm around her waist and pulled her into him, his strong chest pressing into her back.

"Give me this chance," he pleaded. "Believe it or not I'm actually on the better half of the law this time. If at any point you want out, then you're free to go, but I think you'll understand when you get there. If you want to kick my ass after then you are welcome . . . to try. Please, Raven."

She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. He only ever called her Raven when he was concerned . . . or when he wanted something. There was something in him that drew Raven. Like there was a perfect mix of darkness – which drew her as a kindred spirit – and a light, a goodness, to him that balanced the dark. It called to her. Maybe that's what balanced her powers so effectively. Whatever acts of thievery he had pulled in their past she couldn't deny the goodness that she saw and felt within him.

She nodded and felt him sigh in relief into the crook of her neck. His arms tightened around her, one around her waist and one around her shoulders. The hug was such a platonic gesture, but was somehow one of the most intimate ones they had shared. She turned in his arms to face him.

"This had better be worth all the trouble, X. I swear if this is just for a payday -"

"It's worth it, Little Bird, but it _has_ to be done tonight," he said with such conviction and steel in his voice that she stopped and simply nodded.

"So what's the plan?"

O • O • O • O

The building was unassuming on the outside, just an amalgamation of shops and hole in the wall restaurants, but Raven had spent enough time with Robin to know that appearances were deceiving in a city. Red X had told her that it was all a front for the gangsters' operations within. He had told her as much information as he had on this den or crime and the shady dealings they dealt in. Pretty usual stuff for a crime syndicate, but there had been rumors that they were getting into something more nefarious and a personal contact had convinced Red X that the rumors were true. Raven asked what these nefarious dealings might be. She had grown rigid and a fire lit behind her eyes when he told her it was rumors of human trafficking.

She had asked why they couldn't involve the Titans or at least the police, but Red X had made it clear that the syndicate had no problem in . . . disposing of their problem if they got wind that something was going on to endanger their plans. The police would have to follow protocol which could get people killed and even the Titans could bring too much attention to the situation before everyone could get out safely.

This job required the quiet and finesse of as few people as possible. With Raven's powers she could get the people out with the least amount of effort and notice. With her they could pull of this mission between the two of them and his handful of moles within the syndicate.

They had spent the rest of the day planning and pouring over maps, adjusting their plans as necessary. It was a strange experience, working so closely with him and having him fixated on the task at hand instead of on making moves on her. He was clever, intelligent, and had a sound tactical mind and Raven had found herself impressed. They parted ways at sunset, him pulling up his mask to kiss her before they did; a slow, gentle kiss unlike the ones they had shared before. He had teleported away before she say anything.

She now crouched in the alley, watching the building, and ran through the building's schematics in her head, remembering the details of the plan they had concocted. She waited for Red X's signal and when she saw the light flashing briefly from the downstairs window – where he told her the entrance parlor to the hidden, true nature of the syndicate was – she made her move.

She hoped his distraction would be as good as he planned it to be as she used her soul self to appear on the upper level balconies. She peered through the windows to ensure that the way was clear before entering the building. She pictured the map in her head, making the appropriate turns down the strangely labyrinthine hallways. This was certainly no normal set of apartments above the supposed simple shops downstairs. It seemed at least that part of Red X's story had been true so far. Something was not as it seemed up here.

A sneeze alerted her to someone's presence around a corner and she pulled herself into the shadows, her heart racing at coming so close to getting caught. The man walked around the corner and took a turn down another hall before she let out a relieved breath. She was almost where Red X's contact had said they'd find what they had come for. One more turn and she'd be where she needed to be.

She could feel the presence of the two men in the hall standing guard over the door that was her target. She used her powers to bind their consciousness, holding them in a semi sleep state as she turned the corner and walked to stand before them. She held them in a mental limbo, them neither being able to see or hear, as if sleeping, while still being conscious enough that they would think nothing amiss when she released them. She dropped them back in their seats and turned to the room that was her target, holding on to their bindings in the back of her mind. She closed her eyes when she stood outside the door and sent out her senses to make sure no one else was around to ambush her once she was inside. She felt no other guards nearby, but sensed several fearful people within the room. She found the door locked and had to rifle through the pockets of the guards before she found a ring of keys. Third try was the charm as she felt the mechanism click. She could hear fearful whimpering within at the sound of the lock disengaging and she braced herself for what she might find.

She opened the door and blinked to adjust to the darkness of the dimly lit room. She heard gasps and cries of fear and she blinked until her eyes adjusted to the dark.

More than a dozen pairs of eyes met her gaze. All of them children.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: There's a T-rated and M-rated version of this fic. This is the T rated version.

Thanks to all my reviewers! I want you to know that I read and appreciate all of them. I have some long term plans for this story so get ready for some twists and turns. Thanks for reading!

**Chapter 7**

Raven found herself face to face with a huddle of children, varying in ages from what appeared to be as old as twelve and young as five. Fourteen of them. Her blood boiled at the knowledge of what could have befallen these children had the syndicate been allowed to continue with their plans. She crouched down slowly, holding out her hands palms out in a show of non-hostility.

"Hey. Hey, it's okay," she said gently. "I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Raven. I'm with the Teen Titans. Do you know who the Titans are?"

Most of the children were still frozen with fear but a few of them nodded their heads as recognition dawned in their eyes.

"Okay. Good. Me and a friend of mine came here to help you all. Now, can you tell me what happened? Can you tell me why you're here?"

A boy of about ten walked up to her timidly, stopping a few paces from her.

"They took us," he said, quietly. "They took all of us. Said our parents had debts to pay and that we had other uses, too. We've been here for days."

Raven shook with rage and did her best to hide it from the children.

"I see. Okay, are there any more of you that I have to help? Anyone in another room?"

The boy shook his head and another, an older girl said she hadn't seen anyone else or heard talk of any others.

"Okay," Raven whispered, feeling all their fear and worry. "Okay, here's the plan. I have a safe place to take you all but you're going to have to help me, okay? I can only take-," she looked at them, assessing size and strain on her powers, "-maybe five of you at a time since we're not going far. But the rest of you are going to have to help me. I have the guards outside in kind of a trance so they don't know that anything is wrong right now. I'm going to release them, though, so no one will think anything is wrong. So when I reappear in this room with my magic I'm going to need you all to stay quiet, okay? I understand that it can be scary when I use my powers but you can't let the guards know anything is going on in here."

"Why can't you just get rid of them?" a small girl squeaked from the back, tears running down her face.

"Because if someone walks by and sees the guards knocked out or missing they'll come in here and move you and put more bad men to watch you than they already have. We're already risking someone finding the guards in their trance now. We have to go. Will you all help me? Will you all trust me?"

The children nodded furiously, the older ones calming the younger and Raven let out a breath. Three of the oldest, including the boy that had spoken to her earlier, helped her organize the trips.

"Alright, so I'll take the youngest first. They'll be the least calm if I leave them," she said as the three nodded in agreement. "I'll get them to safety, then I'll reappear here in the room for the next group. It should only take a few minutes. I _will_ return for the rest of you, okay? A Titan keeps their promise and I _promise_ you that I will be back for you."

She could still feel the fear in them, though they presented themselves with a brave face. She wanted so badly to use her powers to calm them, but she was going to need all the strength she could muster to get them all to safety.

"I'm going to go wake the guards now. It's time for you all to be the bravest you've _ever_ had to be. I'm going to have to lock the door again, so everything seems normal. Be extra brave for me, okay? I know it's going to be scary, but then I'll use my powers to appear right back in this room. We're going to get out of here, all of us, I promise you."

She went into the hall, locked the door behind her, and returned the keys to the guard's pocket. She turned around the corner so they wouldn't see her when she released them. She focused her energy and and let go of her hold on them gently, pulling them out of their trance gradually so they wouldn't feel an abrupt shift in their consciousness.

They shook their heads groggily and mentioned something about needing stronger coffee if they're going to be put on babysitting duty. She let out a quiet breath that they hadn't seemed to be concerned upon coming out of their trance. They hadn't noticed anything was amiss.

Her soul self swirled around her and brought her back into the room. A couple of the smaller children squeaked in shock, but the older kids muffled their sounds so as not to alert the guards.

"That was great, guys," Raven whispered, crouching before them once more. "You were all so brave, thank you. Now, the five youngest. I need you all to gather around me."

The older kids brought the scared youngsters to her and she explained how her soul self was going to wrap around them and then bring them someplace safe with someone who would help them.

"It'll be like a big shadow bird that will wrap you in its wings. Just hold on to me and you'll be fine. I'll look after you, Okay?"

She nodded to the older kids and quickly called on her powers. The longer they delayed the more chance they took of one of the kids panicking and alerting the guards.

They appeared in room of the building Red X had instructed her to and there was a flurry of commotion as they were rushed by adults. Raven tried her best to keep calm, ready to defend the children, when she heard several of them cry out, "Mommy! Daddy!"

She looked around and realized that the room was full of anxious parents, some of whose children had just appeared before them. She breathed out a sigh of relief while simultaneously cursing Red X. He had told her that someone would be there to intercept the kids, he hadn't told her it would be an army of emotionally charged people.

"I have to go back for the others," she gasped out, desperate to be out of there. "I'll be back."

A few of the parents nodded and one man fell to his knees, sobbing in relief as he held his daughter. Raven balked at the wave of emotions in the room and immediately transported out.

The kids handled it better than the parents when she reappeared in the room. Their emotions were more in check as they did their best to stay calm. It truly amazed Raven how much people were capable of when their lives were in danger, no matter their age.

"You guys are amazing," she whispered, truthfully, looking each of them in the eyes. "Some of the bravest people I've ever seen. Come on now, next group."

She delivered the next group to their awaiting parents, bracing herself this time for the emotions she had been unprepared for the first time around. She did better this time, but left as soon as possible before the emotions rose again as the parents reunited with their children.

The last four kids were in a panic when she returned.

"Hey, hey, hey, what's going on?" she asked, not expecting their emotional onslaught.

"They're opening the door!" the oldest cried, a twelve year old girl who pointed at the door.

Indeed, Raven heard the click of a lock behind her and when she looked she saw the door open and the guards enter with two other men. They stood in shock at seeing Raven and only four children.

"Boss was right!" one of the men in the back called out, raising a gun to aim at her. "He was just a distraction! She's taking them!"

"Grab her alive!" another said. "Boss will want her too!"

Raven didn't hesitate. She wrapped the children in her soul self and disappeared from the room as she heard the first gunshot ring out.

She returned the last of the children to their parents, pushing people aside and trying to hold them back as they rushed to thank her. She shouted for them to give her space, her dark magic swirling around her erratically as she did.

They stepped back and she stood panting in a circle of grateful and confused adults as she tried to reign in her powers.

"Thank you," a woman sobbed, keeping her distance but reaching out a hand to her. "Thank you for saving them. Jason said we could count on you."

"Jason?" Raven asked, still trying to catch her breath and regain control of her powers as she heard lightbulbs begin to pop. A theory popped into her head and she went cold at the thought.

_There's no way that it could be him this whole time_, she thought.

"Yes," said a man on the other side of her. "He said he'd distract everyone while you got the children. He's never let us down before and he seemed sure that you wouldn't either. Thank you. Thank you for everything. Both of you."

Raven felt her panic rise as she remembered what the men had said as they'd entered the room. They had said he was a distraction. They said to grab her _too_.

"Where is he?" she asked, frantically looking around her. She looked at the clock on the wall. He should have been back by now.

No one in the room could answer her question, and that gave her all the answer she needed. He'd gotten caught. She couldn't leave him there.

"I have to help him," she panted.

She didn't think before she transported out of the room and back to the syndicate stronghold. She would reflect later that she should have called in the Titans. She should have called for any kind of backup now that she needn't fear repercussion against innocents. But all she could think about was that Red X had just risked his life to save a room full of children and someone like that couldn't just be left in the hands of men who would resort to child trafficking. She couldn't waste any time. She couldn't be sure what they would do to him.

Her powers worked best if she transported someplace she was familiar with, someplace she had already been or seen. So she brought herself back to the twisting hallways of the upper level, right next to a staircase that she had passed that went down to the lower level. She could hear the commotion of running feet and shouts coming from all around, though no one was in the hall she was currently occupying.

She used her powers and felt for his familiar signature. Once she locked onto it she tore down the stairs, using her powers to dart in and out of the shadows, hoping to avoid detection. She could hear snippets of orders being barked as she darted from one shadowy corner to another. Orders to secure the perimeter, orders to find the missing children, orders to keep everyone out of the back room while they dealt with the snake in their midst.

Bingo.

She made her way to the room, following the map in her head from the blueprints they had studied in their planning. She backed into a dark corner when she saw a man in the doorway to the back room talking to a group of men in the room she was now in.

"Make sure we aren't interrupted," the man said, a cruel smile spreading across his face. "Breaking him is going to be fun. And find those fucking assets. Put a mark on the girl. Titan or not you don't mess with us and get out unscathed."

Two men stood on either side of the door and the rest of the men scattered, passing by their target and not even knowing it. A dark part of her smirked as they scurried by. Wasn't the first hit someone had put out on her and likely wouldn't be the last. They'd have a hard time finding someone who would be willing to take the risk let alone someone who actually had a hope of actually pulling it off.

The man closed the door behind him as he went in and Raven sent out her spirit to scout the room and feel for how many people were in there. Two men and Red X. How fortunate for her.

She did what she hated to do and appeared in the unfamiliar room. She took the two men by surprise and saw Red X lift his masked face from where he had just been tied to the chair in the middle of the room. She took out one of the men with a desk thrown by her soul self but the other man, the one who had given orders in the doorway, recovered from his surprise more quickly than she would have thought.

She felt the knife before she saw it, slicing across her arm as it sailed past her. She used her powers to grab the knife and throw it back and the man threw himself out of its way before realizing that she wasn't aiming for him, but at the ropes binding Red X. He extricated himself from the severed ropes as she turned back toward the gangster. The gunshot rang out as she made eye contact with him.

"Raven!" Red X, screamed as she staggered, trying to stay on her feet. He dove for the man aiming his second shot at the Titan. They fought briefly before Red X knocked the man out with a savage blow to the head and kicked away his gun before diving for Raven as she she stumbled and fell.

"Raven! Shit!" he shouted as he caught her and lifted her into his arms. "What the fuck were you thinking? Why did you come after me? Fuck, this is all my fault."

"X!" He stopped his ranting and looked at her as she yelled. "I'm fine." She winced, belying her words. "It's a through and through, just in the shoulder. Bullet's out and it's already healing. You need to calm down before your panic overtakes my emotions. Please."

Her last word came out as a whispered plea and he stroked her face, attempting to calm himself. She reached up and cupped his cheek.

"It's been a hard day," she joked, trying to lighten the mood.

He transported them to the room where she had taken the children. The crowd moved up to them, wanting to offer gratitude and Red X growled at everyone to stay back as he set her down on the ground and cradled her head in his lap.

He checked her over, despite her assessment that she was okay. His fear began to subside as he found she was, indeed, already healing. He hugged her to him and turned to assess the situation. He saw the kids in the arms of their parents and he felt both relief and a lilt of anger.

He turned to a man that Raven hadn't noticed the last time she was in the room. Red X called him Tyler asked him if everything else had gone according to plan. He reassured him that they weren't followed and that everyone had made it.

Red X sighed and hung his head in relief, still refusing to let loose his hold on the woman in his arms.

"Why are they all here?" Red X snarled as he raised his head at Tyler. "Her powers react to emotions, something could have happened with all the panic that she unknowingly popped in on. I would have warned her."

Raven watched what she could only assume was Red X glaring daggers at the man, and she marveled over the consideration that he had for her. She felt bad for assuming that he had known about the parents and hadn't told her and she was moved that he was so concerned for her.

The man known as Tyler shrugged and looked unapologetic.

"It was the best way I could think to make sure the kids were calm when she brought them out," he justified. "It was a last minute adjustment. She did fine. Pulled of the job without fault. Even saved your ass. She's a strong one."

Red X stared him down through the mask and shook his head at him before turning his attentions back to Raven.

A woman approached them and – despite Red X's protective hold – reached out to touch her on the shoulder.

"Thank you," she breathed to the prone Titan. "Thank you for everything."

Raven looked at the woman and gave a nod.

"I was just executing _his_ plan," she said, inclining her head to Red X. "He's no less a hero than I am in this."

The woman smiled in a knowing way. "I'm glad someone else sees it," she said, squeezing Raven's shoulder before standing. She touched the back of Red X's head and whispered a thank you to him as well before rejoining her family.

Red X spoke to Tyler and directed him to make sure the families found someplace safe until they could go into hiding. Tyler nodded and promised he and the others had everything handled from here. He turned to the families, calling out for them to gather around as he laid out a plan.

Red X stood and picked up Raven into his arms again. She squeaked in protest, indignant at the implication of her needing more rescue.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"It's my fault you got hurt," he said in a monotone voice. "At least let me take you someplace comfortable to finish healing."

He pushed a button on his belt and a few jumps later they found themselves back in his bedroom. He began walking her to the bed and Raven shuddered at all the emotions she could feel from him: fear, anger, and most disturbing to her was his self-loathing. He was mentally spiraling down a rabbit hole of self-deprecation that seemed to be one familiar to him. All of his bravado and over-projected self assurance was all just a cover for how he really felt.

Worthless. A failure. Unworthy. And he was spending his life trying to prove otherwise.

She had to distract him from that line of thought, from his terrible brooding. She had to keep him from reliving those assumptions about himself that was likely the cause of those nightmares that he had spoken of.

She had to do something. She had to let him know that he was far from what he thought of himself. She had to let him know that he was _seen_. She had to let him know that she _knew_. But first she had to be sure of what she thought she knew.

Raven let out a dry laugh, and spoke in a low, suggestive tone, hoping to break the tension radiating from Red X.

"Anything to get me back into your bed . . ."

A small smirk crossed his face under his mask.

". . . Jason?"

He stopped, looked at her startled and took a few moments before taking the last few steps and laying her down. He stared at her for time, then sat beside her and pulled off his mask and revealed his face to her for the first time, dark hair falling in messy waves over his brow and into the brightest green eyes she had ever seen. She reached out and touched his face, a strong and rather handsome face that she recognized from pictures she had seen. A face that hadn't been seen by Robin or his mentor for quite some time. She stroked her fingers over strangely familiar features, brushing the dark hair – broken by a thin white streak at the front – away from his eyes.

"Jason Todd," she whispered.

"So you know," he whispered back. "How did you find out?"

"One of the parents tonight called you Jason. I didn't really make the connection right away, it was more a fleeting thought since you were the first Jason that came to mind. You just happen to be the most infamous Jason I know. But everything fit; your fighting style, your personality, your complete disregard for Robin. It finally made sense."

He chanced a small smirk at her and she smiled a gentle smile back.

"It wasn't until just now when I saw your face," she continued. "I've seen the pictures in Robin's room-"

"Boy Blunder has pictures of me? Kinda creepy . . . I mean I'm flattered none the less . . ."

Raven scowled at his attempt to use humor to deflect from the serious topic.

"Sorry," he whispered.

"Mostly his pictures of you are from newspaper articles and reports. I've seen those same pictures in the archives when I read the reports about . . . about what happened to you. The possibility flashed in my head when I heard your name earlier, but just now, as soon as I saw your face, the face from the pictures, I _knew_. Although _this_ is new," she teased, twisting the white locks of hair around her fingers.

He scoffed. "A souvenir from the Lazaraus pit," he said plainly. "Remind me to tell you about that some other time."

He stared at her for a long moment before speaking again. "You considered the possibility that I was Jason Todd earlier tonight and you still came back for me. You know, now, not only the things that I've done as Red X, but everything else. Everything I've done with Batman and then as Red Hood; the crimes that I've committed. And you still came back for me. Why, Little Bird? Why save me? Or why not at least call the Titans and have them take me in?"

"You made it very clear that the syndicate has no problem in disposing of their problems. I couldn't chance that happening to you. Because, hard though it may be for you to believe, what your name is and what you've done in the past doesn't matter, Jason. Not to me. Believe me when I say that there is darkness in my past too and I have spent years attempting to not let it define me. Just as you shouldn't let your darkness define you.

"All that matters is who I know you are." She continued. She reached over and touched his face again, stroking his cheek with her thumb. "And you were no less than a hero tonight, in so many ways, and I need you to know that I see that. Who I know you are, who I've seen and who you've revealed to me, is a better person than you're able to see. You told me some truths that night in the medical test facility that even I couldn't see about myself. Now you're just going to have to trust the truths I know about you."

He looked at her in amazement. Everything strange that he felt since their encounters together had started had nothing on this latest revelation.

She _saw_ him. She saw him in a way that no one had in a long time . . . maybe ever. He reached out and twined his fingers through the hair at the back of her head, still wondering at his luck in finding her. He smirked at her again, she _knew_ he was one to smirk, and closed his eyes as her fingers continued brushing across his cheek.

"Don't," she whispered. He opened his eyes, green staring into violet. "It's bad enough you hide those eyes behind a mask, X. Don't hide them from me now."

"Then don't go back to my old name, Little Bird. You _see_ me. You _know_ me. Call me Jason." His eyes pleaded with hers. "Please."

She smiled at him. "Jason."

He swooped down and kissed her soundly. She met his lips with hers, adrenaline still rushing through her from their rescue mission. She was on a high and planned to ride it out. His tongue sought entrance into her mouth and she parted her lips obligingly. He groaned as she dug her fingers into his hair and pulled him closer, deepening their kiss. He pulled his legs into the bed and lay flush against her as his lips moved against hers. She gripped his shoulders and pressed her chest more tightly against his. He could feel the swell of her chest as she breathed. He reached behind her and began pulling down the zipper at her back.

He moved to trace her ear with his tongue before biting, sucking, and kissing his way down her neck, setting her nerves on fire.

"Jason," she moaned, trying the name on for size and liking how it rolled off her tongue with such ease.

"Say it again," he growled fiercely against her bare shoulder as he straddled her and pulled down the neck of her leotard, taking a moment to sigh in relief that her wounds had already healed.

"Jason."

"Again," he begged as he gently lifted her and finished pulling down the zipper with one hand, the other continuing to pull the fabric away in the front and worshiping every inch of skin he exposed.

"Jason."

He pulled back and stared at her, relishing in the sheer intimacy of the moment. He closed his eyes as he kissed the crook of her neck. He could feel her undo his belt, the belt that he had fought so hard to steal from Robin, and drop it to the side of the bed. He was usually so particular about the care of that belt, but he truly had a new prize and nothing else mattered. He shimmied out of the top of the Red X suit as she pulled it over his head. He opened his eyes and stared down at her.

"Say it again," he breathed, his voice husky.

"Jason!" she cried before he kissed her again, unable to get enough of the sound of his real name on her lips, surprised at how much it affected him.

He had meant it when he said he was a rake. He was wealthy (due mostly to his current profession as thief extraordinaire), he was charming, self-indulgent, and whether or not one would define him as promiscuous he certainly wasn't a prude. He'd gotten around, taking pleasure where he could, but nothing had ever felt like this.

Even at its inception there was something different about this thing he had with Raven. She saw more of him than anyone else ever had, and the thing he had always feared – that someone would take one look at all of him (his failures, his lack of worth, his darkness) and balk – was not even a concern with her. She took every part of him and embraced it.

He had never dared hope for that before.

He ran his thumb in little circles on her hip as his lips traced the line of her collarbone and up to her neck nipping and suckling a trail up to her jaw, leaving small marks on her pale flesh as evidence of his need for her.

And marking her as his.

They gave themselves to one another, taking every pleasure they craved, and afterward they lay in a tangle of limbs and sweat kissed flesh. Their breathing evened out eventually and began to sync together, chests rising and falling in tandem. Raven absentmindedly toyed with a lock of her hair as she caught her breath.

"I told you the next time I kept you up it would be worth it," he panted, brushing a damp lock of hair out of her face.

She laughed and nestled her face up beside his. He wrapped a possessive arm around her and drew her closer to him.

She shivered after a while and Jason started to shift so he could pull the duvet over them when she smiled at him. She held him to her as her soul self wrapped around them again and lifted the duvet through them until it nestled over them. She smirked at him as he let out an impressed chuckle.

"Well that's a fun trick," he said, smirking back at her.

"I'm full of handy surprises," she said, biting her lower lip as she smiled at him. Jason found the act unbearably sexy and pulled her in for another deep, lingering, penetrating kiss.

"I don't doubt that for a second, Little Bird. _My_ Little Bird."

She hummed in response to the slight change in his title for her, so subtle yet with so much meaning. He pulled her to his chest and buried his face in her hair, which now smelled of her normal earl grey mixed with his own of coffee and cedar, and the combination of his smell with hers made something primal in him incredibly happy. She snuggled into his chest, wrapping an arm around his waist and he wrapped both of his arms around her.

He was content in more ways than he thought possible. He had set out to save those kids and hopefully not lose Raven in the process of practically using her. But not only had the kids been saved _and_ he hadn't lost Raven, they had somehow grown even closer together.

He had heard the term "and now I can die happy" before, but he could never rationalize the concept of what it could really feel like until this moment. He _honestly_ didn't care what happened after this. There was only this moment for him, now, this woman in his arms.

He held her tightly to him as he contemplated the ramifications of what they now had between them. He couldn't lose her now, and that connection terrified him. He had meant it when he said to her that he didn't _do_ attached, but here he was as attached as he felt someone could be.

This was usually the time where he would talk about how he had an early morning or how he had cab fare ready; whatever it took to get the girl out of his bed and on her way. He never let a girl spend the night, ever. It was his policy. But he held on to Raven possessively, absolutely terrified of the idea that he wouldn't get to do this every night.

He thought the idea would stifle him but he only felt warm and comforted by the thought of having her by him all the time. He felt her muscles relax as her breathing evened to a slow, steady pace that indicated she had fallen asleep.

He stroked her hair as she hummed in her sleep at the gesture. He sighed in contentment and finally closed his eyes, drifting off in the peace of her presence and finally knowing what a true peaceful night's rest was like.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Robin paced the comm room in the tower trying, unsuccessfully, to track Raven's communicator for what must have been the fiftieth time since she went missing. He couldn't help feel that Red X was involving her in something dangerous and he didn't like being left in the dark. Something strange was going on between her and Red X and he wouldn't be satisfied until he found her and she was able to give him some answers. She had lied to him about Red X being there in her hospital room and though it was possible she had done so under duress she had given no indications that she had done so against her will. He had to know the truth either way and he had to know _why_ either way.

The police scanner finally put out something of interest and Robin leaned over it, listening to the call coming in and checking the police database that he had hacked into for more detailed info. Gunshots reported and suspected members of a notorious crime syndicate scouring the streets looking for what appeared to be a large group of people. Mention of a man in a skull mask that had been apprehended by the syndicate and then rescued. Possible meta human activity.

Bingo.

He called his contact at the station and was told all that he already knew. His contact was actually about to call Robin himself since there were conflicting reports that called into question possible Titan involvement. After assuring him that there was no official Titan involvement, his contact told him that there was no other information yet, but a former hitman associate of the officer had called to tell him something interesting. The syndicate had put a hit out on a member of the Teen Titans: A hit on Raven.

Robin slammed his phone down in rage, slamming his fist on the table as well and swore. What had Raven gotten herself into? And all for the sake of – or under the compulsion of – Red X.

Robin stalked out of the comm room and tore out of the tower on his motorcycle. He scoured the streets looking for answers. It was only hours until sunrise by the time Robin found a member of the syndicate and waited for an opportunity to take him out when he was alone.

Within moments he was holding the man to the alley wall by the throat and he nearly strangled him before he was willing to talk.

"I don't know much," he choked out, coughing as he tried to regain his breath with Robin's hand still at his throat. "We was only on babysitting duty tonight."

"Babysitting who?" Robin growled.

"The syndicate's been keeping collateral of families what owed them. They been keeping the kids. We was guarding them tonight and they all been jail broken by no other than your scary witch bitch, Raven, while some punk in a skull mask with a red x on it run the distraction. I heard the Titan got shot, though, when she went back to rescue the thief. I don't know nothing else. All I know is that they both got away and now we's all out here looking for them and those fucking kids."

Robin's fist held back nothing as he landed a blow to the man's head before delivering him to the station in a heap. He told his contact that the man may have information that might be useful to their investigation on the syndicate. He asked him to do what could be done about canceling the hit on Raven and his friend said he'd do his best.

Robin checked the hospitals and found no gunshot patients that matched Raven's description. He wasn't sure if he was relieved that it hadn't been that bad and she had healed or if it made him more fearful for her. Fearful that she was out there somewhere really hurt and he couldn't help her. Robin returned back to the tower just before dawn and tried tracking Raven, again, to no avail.

He sat in the chair and held his head in his hands resting his elbows on his knees. If possible he was more frustrated now than he was when the evening started. He _had_ to find her. Whatever it took.

O • O • O • O

Jason drifted out of sleep and gently back into consciousness. He wasn't used to that. He had grown accustomed to fitful sleep even if he _didn't_ suffer from debilitating nightmares, though he suffered them more nights than not. He usually woke up by jolting awake in a cold sweat, some intangible dread hanging over him regardless of whether or not he had been plagued by nightmares that night. But last night he had had no nightmares and couldn't remember the last time a sleep had been _so_ unaffected by tension and terror.

He took in a deep breath and two things hit him at the same time. First, there was the unmistakable scent of earl grey tea and lavender permeating the air and second, there was a comfortable but unfamiliar weight on his chest.

He opened his eyes, blinking several times to pull the world into focus. He looked down to see his arms still around Raven, her head and hand resting on his bare chest as she slept. He remembered the events of the previous night and brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. He ran his fingers down the pale, smooth skin of her arm and back up again, just marveling over the events of the last few days.

He had gone from practically having withdrawals from her two week absence to rekindling what they had, to saving her life, to her helping him save those kids, to her saving _him_, to the single greatest night with a woman that he could remember. All the times they had taken pleasure in each other last night were blurring together into a single act of passion and release and he leaned his head back into his pillow sighing as he relived it all in his mind. In vivid detail.

"You seem remarkably contented," Raven murmured against his chest. "You're practically purring."

He lifted his head to look at her and she looked up at him, not moving to untangle herself from his body.

"Anyone would be if they were in my situation, Little Bird."

Raven blushed, her skin turning a lovely shade of dusty rose and he pulled her up to give her a long, languid kiss. His touch was no less electrifying than the night before and she could feel desire pool up in her once more. She could feel the evidence of his need against her thigh and it only excited her more.

Their bodies soon joined again, the sex agonizingly slow and languorous. They spent ages tracing over each others' skin, remapping bodies they had memorized in the night and still finding amazement and newness in the now familiar territory.

The tension built in their bodies, a slow burn this time instead of a raging fire, but no less intense and endangering of consuming them both. They both tested the limits of their control – control they were incapable of the previous night – and it was exquisite torture. They lay together in a tangled heap afterward, basking in the afterglow, Raven lazily twisting a lock of her hair around her finger. Jason stared at the ceiling, reeling from the intensity of how they felt together.

"Would it ruin the moment if I said I was hungry?" Raven asked after a time, still staring at the ceiling.

Jason laughed and pulled her closer. "I was just thinking the same thing."

She pulled herself up to a sitting position, the sheet draped around her in a quite fetching way, her hair spilling over her shoulders in messy waves, the ends trailing on her collarbone. The whole effect and the radiant glow of her pale skin making her look like some kind of Greek painting of a maiden. His very own work of art.

"So what's the plan now?" she asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "Back to reality?"

His hand slid to the back of her neck and pulled her down for another kiss. "Do we have to?" he asked as they parted. "Can't we just order take out and never leave this bed?"

"Hmm," she mused. "First, I don't think that anyone will deliver directly to your bed. And second, as tempting as that sounds the Titans will eventually find us and likely kill us _both _by that point."

She kissed him again and sat back up, rolling her shoulder to work out the stiffness from muscles still newly knitted together.

He reached up and held her shoulder, rubbing a thumb over where her gunshot wound had been where there was now only smooth, pale flesh.

"I still can't believe that fucking happened," he whispered. "A few inches down and . . ."

"Hey," she said, cupping his face with her hands and forcing him to look at her. "I'm fine. I've suffered worse, remember? It's a hazard of the job."

"You only got this because you came after me. If I hadn't gotten fucking caught you never would have gotten hurt."

She stroked his cheek with the thumb of one hand. "What happened, Jason? What went wrong last night that got you caught? I figured catching Red X – the former Robin _and_ Red Hood – was no easy feat."

He placed his hands over hers and pulled them from his face, sliding them down and holding them on his chest.

"I was clear," he started, "but I went back into the office to get proof. I had to get something concrete that didn't require any of those kids or their families to testify. I found ledgers, documents, flash drives, proof that they were going to sell those kids and to whom. I smuggled the documents out with someone I trusted who had infiltrated the syndicate. He took off with the papers and drives but I had to hold off some people to give him a clear out without being identified.

"_That_ was when I was taken. And _that_ was when you came back for me. _That_ was when you super stealth-leveled your way through the building and somehow bad-assed your way into the syndicate back room and _that_ is when you got fucking stabbed and shot in the same goddamn minute." His voice got darker and at the last bit and he looked at her now with an admonishing stare.

"To be fair," she said, pulling a hand out from his and holding it up to stop him from continuing, "I would hardly call that a stab, the knife barely grazed me. And the shot was healed within minutes."

"It was longer than minutes, Raven." His voice had taken on a hard edge now.

"The _point_ is that I'm fine." She ran her fingers through his hair. "I'm fine because of you. I'm fine because you got me out of there. I'm fine because your presence heals my exhaustion. I'm fine because things don't explode when I'm with you. I'm fine because you came out of nowhere and plucked me from from a fall of several stories. I'm fine because you risked exposing yourself to Robin to come back for me and bring me to the hospital. I'm _fine_ because of you, Jason Todd."

He sat up as well and held her face in his hands. He looked like he was wondering whether to ask his next question, but he blazed ahead eventually. "What do you think of me now that you know who I am? Now that you know what's attached to the seemingly carefree nature of Red X? Now that you've had time to consider it."

"I still don't care about who you were in the past, Jason. It only completes the package of who you are now, dark past and all. And let me reiterate – since you appear to be incredibly dense about some things – last night you were nothing short of a hero. I mean," she smiled a playful smile at him, "over the past few days you've also proven yourself a stalker too, but at least a heroic one."

He smirked at her, his wonder at her acceptance of him only continuing to grow.

"Who would have ever though that stalking someone on her rooftop, following her on a mission, and kidnapping her from the hospital would turn out to be the best decision I ever made?" he asked lazily, falling back into the pillows. "That it would end up in something as perfect as last night." He pulled her back down beside him and kissed her forehead. "And this morning." He kissed her cheeks. "And right now."

"That being said, last night and this morning were certainly not a singular occurrence, Jason. I don't know about you, but I fully plan on another repeat performance. And soon."

"Liiiiiike, after lunch soon?" he proposed, raising his brow at her, grateful for the lightening of the conversation. "We've . . . _slept_ through breakfast."

"I suppose we can see where the day takes us," she smirked. He smiled a genuine, full smile at her which she returned.

"Lunch, then. And the rest is in the air."

Raven rose from the bed. "But first, a shower."

She had been in the steaming water for less than a minute before the door to his large shower was opened and Jason stepped in with her. Their plans to continue their tryst _after_ lunch flew out of their heads as she pushed his back against the shower tiles and trailed kisses from his chest to his neck and up to his ear.

They took their pleasure in each other this time with urgency and need, as if to counter the slow and gentle morning in bed. His suckling kisses and bites left more marks on her neck, leaving physical evidence of his need for her and a primitive part of her couldn't help how much it turned her on. They finally felt the relief of release and got to actually washing just before the water began to grow cold.

Raven stepped out of the steamy bathroom and went to grab her clothes to begin dressing.

"I have to call the Titans, Jason. I have to let them know that everything is okay. I can call the tower's private number."

Jason rolled his eyes to the ceiling and nodded. "You mean you have to let the mother hen know so he doesn't have a conniption?"

Raven scoffed, but remained serious. "There's that too. And it's still your fault, may I remind you. _You're_ the one who kidnapped me instead of asking for my help like a normal person."

He stepped up behind her and zipped up her top for her before wrapping his arms around her waist and leaning his chin over her shoulder.

"Yeah, but since when has subtlety ever been my strong suit, Little Bird? I have a flair for the dramatic, darlin. Can't help it."

She laughed a little and leaned her head against his. She still couldn't understand what it was about his presence that allowed her emotions to calm themselves this way, even allowing her little things like genuine laughter. She was still in disbelief that last night had happened without incident. It was the most intensely that she had ever felt and she had been allowed to feel it.

He kissed her neck before stepping back to put on a shirt. Raven sighed as she fingered the hole in the shoulder of her leotard that the bullet had left last night. No helping that now.

She held out her hand for his cell phone as Jason pulled it out to check his messages. He pointed at the plain phone on the dresser, obviously a burner phone and she rolled her eyes, grabbing the phone and dialing the number. Jason was leaning against the dresser with his dark shirt unbuttoned as he listened to his messages. He winked at her as her eyes roamed his exposed torso. He mouthed the words "after lunch" before smirking at her. She shook her head, blushing again, as her call connected.

The automated system asked for a voice conformation and Raven gave her code to get patched through to the comm room.

"Raven?!" she heard a panicked voice ask when the call connected. The automation would have let him know that it was her code that was used.

"Yeah, it's me, Robin," she started, suddenly unsure of what it was that she was going to say even though she had spent all morning thinking about it. Well, most of the morning. Okay, some of the morning. She felt a niggling of guilt at letting herself get so distracted from calling him earlier.

"Raven!" Robin's voice was a mix of irritation and relief. "Thank God. I heard you were shot, Raven! What the hell did Red X get you into?! Do you have any idea how worried I was for you?! Where's you comm? What the hell happened last night?! God, are you okay?"

Before she could even respond to his barrage of questions Jason grabbed her arm, his face full of concern as he listened to a message.

"My contact with the proof from last night is in trouble," he whispered. "We have to help him. He has all the original documents to pin on the syndicate. We can't let them get away with it. We _need_ that evidence."

Raven nodded, suddenly somber and she opened her mouth to speak to Robin.

He tightened his grip on her arm. "He doesn't have a clean record, Little Bird. We can't involve the Titans."

She nodded again and spoke into the phone. "Robin, everything is fine. The gunshot was a through and through, I healed in less than half an hour. I'm fine and I know it's hard to believe but trust me when I say that I'm safe. I'm sorry, I know I owe you all kinds of explanations and I promise you you'll get them, but I have to go. I'll fill you in on everything as soon as I can, Robin, but there's good to be done here and I have to see it through. I'll call again."

"Raven! Don't -" but she had already hung up and turned the phone off.

"Where are we going?" Raven asked.

Jason stared at her, part of his heart singing that he had her attention while she had given Robin the brush off, whatever the reason. He moved back to the bed and grabbed the Red X suit he had laid there after retrieving the pieces off the floor before their shower.

"Downtown," he said as he began to change. "We have to hurry."

O • O • O • O

They found his contact, Cole, leaning back on a sofa in a dingy, run down apartment that Jason said was used as an inconspicuous safehouse. Cole had fled into the building after a run in with members of the syndicate that recognized him. He said he could hear the syndicate enforcers looking for him floor by floor. They had seen him enter the building but luckily they didn't seem to know where he was in it.

He told them that he would have tried to use the fire escape to flee to the roof, but then he removed the jacket resting over his midsection to reveal the gunshot wounds in his stomach. He said he'd hidden the documents to keep them safe and that he could tell them where to find them, but his eyes rolled in the back of his head and he passed out before he was able to tell them any more.

Raven rushed to his side and laid hands on him, closing her eyes in an attempt to heal the wounds as best she could in the time they had. They had to know where those documents were but they'd get nothing out of Cole if he died from his injuries and they couldn't teleport with him if he was hurt this badly. They'd do more harm than good.

She told Red X to find someplace close that they could transport to where the syndicate members wouldn't be able to see them from any of the windows of the building. He nodded before teleporting out of the room.

Her expression grew pained as she grimaced, her hands glowing over Cole's stomach as he regained consciousness. The bleeding had lessened but he didn't look good. He was shaking and looked like he was going to pass out again.

Red X reappeared in the room to tell her that there was an empty loft in the building across the street that had plenty of room for a three person jump. He heard metallic tinking sounds and looked over to see the bloody bullets fall to the floor as Raven expelled them from the Cole's body. He could see the steady drip from the blood running off of the couch, but already Cole's color looked better and his eyes were fully open and no longer dazed.

Raven's head jerked up at the same time as Red X's did as they heard the footfalls of the enforcers in the hall.

"Time's up," Raven whispered. "We'll have to take him as is. X, can you help him to his feet?"

Red X lifted Cole from the couch and put his arm over his shoulders as he supported his weight. He pointed out the window of the loft to Raven so she would know where she was blind jumping to, his belt didn't have enough power to jump all three of them the number of times they'd eventually need to get to a safehouse so she'd have to use her own powers to get to where they were going. She nodded and they transported at the same time.

As soon as they reappeared in the loft they bolted for a portion of the room away from the windows that faced the building they had just fled. Raven laid her hands on Cole again, trying to get him stable before they had to jump again. Jason peeked out from their spot to see if he could spot any movement int the building across the street, but he couldn't make anything out.

It took several more minutes for Raven to declare him safe enough to move to a more secure location further from the syndicate enforcers. Jason gave Raven directions for another safe house that would be their final destination, and Raven was surprised that she knew it. One of Robin's contacts had hidden out there before. Given their shared past it came as less of a surprise that Jason and Robin shared some of the same information.

Jason slid his shoulder under Cole's arm and stood, bearing his weight as Cole groaned.

Raven stood, but doubled over and her breath grew a bit ragged. She told Jason that she could get there in one jump with her powers and meet them there.

"Hey, are you okay?" Red X asked, his voice worried noticing her unsteady bearing. He shifted Cole's weight against him, wishing he could reach for Raven in his concern.

She nodded and stood again, putting on her most stoic expression.

"I'm fine. Healing him that fast just took a lot out of me. I'll be fine."

Red X reached for his belt but stopped before he pressed the button, looking at Raven, still concerned about the way she was holding herself.

"You sure you're okay, Little Bird? Why don't you jump with us? I don't like the idea of us splitting up if you're not feeling great."

"I don't have a ton of energy left, X. I know the safehouse, I'll be able to get there in one go. You should save the power of the belt in case we need it. I'll meet you there, don't worry."

He nodded. "Be safe, Little Bird. Please."

He pressed the button and disappeared and Raven wrapped herself in her soul self again and went straight to the safehouse. She found it thankfully empty and she collapsed on the floor of the living room, leaning up against the side of the couch. She touched her stomach and could already feel the blood soaking through her clothes. She swore. She had rushed the healing too much.. She couldn't work as slowly as she would have liked on his healing, using more of the finesse of her magic and taking less of his wounds on herself, but they hadn't had the luxury.

She wanted to close her eyes and start healing herself, but so much of her power had gone to healing Cole and in transporting herself that she didn't have enough left. She pressed her cloak against the bleeding wound. She just had to get the bleeding to stop and she'd be fine until she could heal. She slumped to the floor, laying on her side, not having the strength to stay upright any longer.

It took more time than she liked, worrying her for a moment, but she finally got the blood flow to stop and could feel herself regaining her strength. It wasn't long after that when she saw two sets of boots appear in the room right before her.

"Raven?!" Red X shouted as he appeared in the room and saw her laying in front of the couch, her bloody cloak laying in front of her midsection. "Seriously?!"

"It's fine, Ja – X. It's fine. The bleeding has stopped."

He made sure Cole was settled in an overstuffed armchair before falling to his knees before Raven. She tried to brush his hands away from her but he grabbed her shoulders to keep her laying down on the floor. He took an X blade and sliced at her top, pulling the fabric away from the now healing wounds and she protested to the further ruining of her clothes. The wounds had stopped bleeding, but were still fresh and painful looking.

Before he could say anything, Tyler, who had taken the children and their families from them the night before, arrived. Red X gave Raven a stern look before he rose and spoke with Tyler for time before helping Cole to his feet and helping Tyler to bear his weight. Raven could hear them agree to get the evidence for Red X, to make back up copies and meet him to deliver it later in the day.

Tyler looked Raven's way and paused, noticing the blood drenched cloak and how she held her stomach.

"Is she okay?"

"I'm fine," she called out in an irritated sing-song voice before Red X could say anything.

Tyler chuckled and cocked an eyebrow at the thief. "I told you she was a strong one, body _and_ spirit. Maybe too strong for you." He laughed again and helped Cole out through the door.

Red X heaved a heavy sigh and lowered his head once they left. He locked the door, removed his mask and turned back to her, walking over and checking her wounds again. They were in fact healing, albeit slowly.

"The fuck, Raven?" He looked into her eyes and felt the cold hand of fear release his heart as he realized that she was going to be alright. She was already healing. But this was the second time that something he dragged her into had gotten her hurt and he was not okay with it.

"I take on a bit of the injuries that I heal," she explained. "It's only a portion but the faster I heal someone and the less finesse I use the more of the injury I have to take onto myself to heal them. We had to work fast with Cole and I had to take on too much. This is not the first time I've had to heal a wound that bad that fast. I knew what I was getting into, Jason. I knew what I was doing."

"Still," he muttered, shaking his head. "I can't keep doing this to you. You've been wounded and/or _dying_ three times in the past four days. Cole says there's a fucking _hit_ out on you. Most of all that is because of me, Raven."

She thumped her head back down on the floor with a thud.

"You're using my real name," she said dejectedly. "That _can't_ be a good sign."

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Nothing," she dismissed. "Listen, _X_," using his name like a weapon, "don't go thinking that anything that happened in the last four days is anything more than things that have happened to me as a Titan before I ever knew you. This shit _happens_. None of this is your fault."

"Bullshit! _All_ of it is, Raven! You wouldn't have _any_ dealings with the syndicate right now if it wasn't for me!"

"The Slade thing was not your fault," she retorted. "Quite the opposite, as I've already pointed out. You _saved_ me from that and _that_ was a Titan battle. Nothing to do with you. And that injury was far worse than anything I've endured for your sake."

"But I was with you beforehand. I prevented you from meditating when you were exhausted. Things might have been different if I hadn't shown up on your rooftop."

"Your presence, for some reason, did more for me than that meditation ever could. You have to stop blaming yourself for every thing that happens to me."

"Raven -" he started, his voice hard and unyielding.

She sat up and grabbed his face in her hands, her eyes starting to show signs of panic.

"Jason, can we just go back to your place? We're on a bit of an emotional high right now. Our adrenaline is wreaking havoc on us, especially on my emotions, and we need to calm down before we start placing blame. Will you do that for me? Please?"

He saw the panic in her eyes and his own softened, hating to see her that way. He laced his fingers in her hair and pulled her in for a kiss. He sighed as he kissed her, still not convinced that he wasn't the worst thing in the world for her, but he couldn't deny how right they felt together.

He pulled away and rested his forehead on hers.

"Let's go, Little Bird."

She sighed in relief at his return to her nickname, hoping his freak out was over, and let him help her to her feet. He wrapped his arm around her waist and jumped them back to his condo.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Thanks, everyone, for your patience! Holidays got crazy but I'll get to this as often as I can. Believe me, I have plans for this one. ;)

jltvaughn I thoroughly appreciate your reviews! It means a lot to know that there's interest and I will do my best to keep things posted on the regular.

To all my reviewers, dgraysongsgirl, danger. grinned. hello, AnisYamamoto, Shewhowillnotbenamed1, James and Alyssa thanks for your support as well. Every bit helps.

**Chapter 9**

Raven twirled the pen in her fingers as she chewed her lower lip, her hair spilling over her shoulder and her brow furrowed in concentration. She looked up from the ledger in her lap when she felt a tingling sensation raising the hairs on the back of her neck and saw Jason staring at her, the laptop that had been sitting in his lap now laying forgotten on the bed beside him.

She grabbed the pillow next to her and threw it at his face, which he batted away with ease.

"We're _supposed_ to be researching, Jason," she admonished. "Remember? Making sure our evidence is enough for conviction, coming up with a plan on making sure none of them weasel their way out, deciphering if anything is hidden in the info that the police might miss, taking anything we discover to the police? Any of it ringing a bell?"

He pushed the papers between them aside and crawled across the bed to where she sat cross-legged amid the pillows with her own copies of the stolen syndicate paperwork strewn around her. The look on his face was absolutely predatory as he pierced her with an unwavering stare. She stared him down with a rebuking look, but couldn't help the slight smile ghosting her lips and the thrill that went down her spine.

"I know," he said, placing his hands on either side of her hips where she sat and leaning over her, causing her to lean back into the pillows. "But we've been over it a dozen times. I think we're solid, considering that we have no experience in this kind of analysis and you know as well as I that we're not likely to find anything the police won't. Plus you are _so_ damn distracting."

She placed a hand on his chest, preventing him from leaning down and kissing her.

"Jason, no," she laughed. "We won't discover _anything_ if we keep . . . getting distracted."

She blushed a smoky rose and Jason couldn't help but be enchanted all over again. He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and pulled her hand off of his chest and he took the ledger out of her other hand at the same time. Raven offered no resistance, smiling a little secret smile up at him even as she shook her head. He tossed the ledger at the foot of the bed and gave her his most devious smirk.

"You're impossible," she whispered into his hair as he kissed her neck, not letting go of her slim wrist and holding it against the pillow at the side of her head. She hummed as he found all the spots along the column of her neck that sent tingles through her nerves.

They had arrived back at Jason's condo the previous day and spent the next hour going back and forth trying to convince each other of their points: Jason trying to convince Raven that he was the worst possible thing for her and Raven trying to convince Jason that not everything that happens is on him or his fault. She pointed out that what he saw as distracting her from meditating had actually renewed her more than those scant few minutes of mediation could possibly have done. She finally managed to persuade him to believe that there was true, genuine good in what they had together and then they had found themselves tumbling back into the sheets together.

The next several hours were spent between physical bliss and intimate conversation. Raven had mused at one point that _usually_ people had these conversations first and _then_ found themselves in bed together. Jason had laughed and told her that they just weren't conventional like that. But, he reminded her, they _did_ have one long all night conversation in the hospital. So diving into bed together was totally legitimate.

They had awakened in the morning and decided that they were going to dive into the copies of the stolen documents that had been delivered late the previous evening. They had to make sure everything was iron clad or those families would either have to stay in hiding or be forced to come out and testify. Each was dangerous and no life to live.

They had muddled through the papers and files while Jason sent someone he trusted to the police with the original documents. They had decided to go through the copies several more times to see if anything new came to light. They'd bring any new findings to the police should they uncover something. But the more they went over the papers again the more they slid back into taking distraction in each other. Raven had found herself annoyed at the fact that they couldn't focus. Just not annoyed enough to put a stop to it. He had a point when he mentioned that they were far from experienced in this sort of thing.

"Jason," she whispered in an admonishing manner one more time, though they could both hear that her heart was no longer in it.

"They have experts, Little Bird", he whispered in her ear. "And they have resources in Gotham they can collaborate with. This syndicate is established there too. The evidence we sent over is damning. I don't think our inexpert analysis is going to be the thing to crack the case. So relax, and let me thank you properly for your help in all this."

It wasn't long before the floor was strewn with forgotten paperwork and discarded clothing. The duvet eventually slipped from the bed a little at a time and joined the rest in a tangled heap. Before long the occupants of the bed found themselves on the floor as well, wincing and laughing at the absurdity of being so wrapped up in one another that they would misjudge where the edge of the bed was.

Jason brushed hair from her laughing face and smiled at her, loving to hear her laugh but so ready to hear more of the sounds he elicited from her just minutes before.

They began to fall asleep on the floor some time later, wrapped in the duvet with their arms wrapped around one another, both still marveling in what they had found in the other. Raven toyed with his hair as he drifted off, feeling peaceful and contented. The moment was perfect.

Jason's cell phone went off on the nightstand.

O • O • O • O

Cyborg yawned as he walked into the comm room, bleary eyed from sleep. Or rather lack thereof. He hadn't been sleeping well, which was saying something for him since sleep usually came with a recharge that knocked him out. But he hadn't been able to really relax since Raven was taken from the hospital. He was living off recharges of his mechanical parts while his human parts had to make do with semi consciousness that proved rather restless.

Two days. She had missing now for over two days. And while she had contacted Robin just yesterday her communication had held no comfort. She hadn't sounded like she was speaking against her will but there was no way they could be sure. They hadn't been able to trace the call and her comm had been offline since the day she disappeared.

He saw the noise that had drawn him into the comm room and blinked in surprise at the face he saw on the large monitor. He'd only met the man a handful of times, but he knew him instantly. He had a bearing about him that seemed to scream his integrity. His job was a daunting one but he remained uncorrupted by it, which was no small feat.

It wasn't easy being the Commissioner of Gotham City.

"I'll be there in an hour," Robin said to his old friend. "We can discuss it in person."

"I wish you were seeing me under better circumstances," Gordon replied, "but, of course, I'll help you out with whatever you need however I can."

Robin nodded and the screen went blank. He turned around and Cyborg could see the exhaustion in his face.

"Did you sleep at all, man?" he asked laying a hand on his shoulder. His leader shrugged off his hand and shook his head.

"I can't," was his only reply.

"Hey, I get it. I'm worried too. But you can't go on running on nothing. We won't get her back that way."

"That's why I'm getting help," he growled. "Whatever Red X has done that's keeping her in danger we _will_ find out and we _will_ put a stop to it. I'm going to make sure of it."

"What kind of help?" Cyborg asked, leaning against the console. "We calling in East on this one or are we, uh-" he looked back at the now black screen, "-going for a bigger league?"

Robin leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling, blinking the dryness from his eyes. "Nothing along those lines yet," he replied. "Bumblebee says that East has a major issue of their own to work out but that they'd be at our disposal as soon as they had it sorted. And there's no reason to get the big guns involved yet until I know more. But that's why I called Gordon. He was already on his way to Jump on business and I'm meeting him in an hour. He has resources we can use."

Cyborg lay a hand on Robin's shoulder again, not letting him shrug him off this time, and waited for him to meet his eyes.

"She's gonna be okay, man. If I know anything about her I know that she's strong. Whatever is going on she's gonna give Red X hell. We'll find her, Robin."

"She lied to me, Cy," Robin said, his eyes narrowing at the memory. "He was there with her in the hospital, all night, and she _lied_ about it. Then she calls and says everything is fine?! She speaks of getting shot like it's no big deal and then rushes off with no other explanation! There has to be a reason that she's doing this. "

"Hey, however Red X is manipulating her to keep her away from us -"

"I think that's what worries me most, Cyborg!" Robin interrupted. "That maybe he's _not_ keeping her from us. That she's staying of her own will. And I think that might be worse."

"Why would she do that?"

"I don't know! But she seemed herself when I saw her at the hospital. She wasn't under duress, she wasn't out of character. She lied to me, about Red X at the hospital and maybe even about all the weird encounters we've been having with him lately. She's been acting so strange after fights with him and he's been weirdly uncharacteristic and now I'm starting to wonder if it's all related. And now she's gone and I still don't know _why_."

He rose to his feet and walked to the door, stopping to look at his friend over his shoulder.

"But I _am_ going to find out. And whatever is going on Red X is going to pay."

Cyborg watched him stalk out of the room and knew that it was best not to follow. When Robin was this volatile nothing was going to bring him out of it until he had some time to reflect. He did not handle helplessness well and never had. And with a missing teammate lost to the hands of a nemesis like Red X, helpless was exactly how they all felt.

With a sigh Cyborg took Robin's seat at the comm console and switched the monitor back on and pulled up the files on Red X. He'd already gone through all of it but he had no choice but to do it again. He had to help find her and hope that this mystery would finally be explained.

As much as he meant what he said about her strength and capability, she was still like his little sister and he couldn't help but worry for her. Red X was a wildcard, they knew very little about him. And that meant that he was difficult to predict. He hoped that, if she _was_ staying with him of her own volition, that she knew what she was doing. He hoped that she was okay.

O • O • O • O

"You don't have to do this, Little Bird. Not for me. We can find another way."

Raven looked over her shoulder at him as she dressed, her eyebrow cocked in a way that told Jason that he didn't really have a say in her decision.

"This is the _easiest_ of decisions, Jason," she scoffed. "The police want a witness and no one else can come forward; you and your contacts can't risk getting caught and I can't let any of those families put themselves in danger without the chance to think it through. If I go in and do this then I buy enough time for them to get their affairs in order before putting a target on themselves with the syndicate if they come forward as well. I can make sure police protections are in place before they do."

Jason remained stubbornly reclined on the floor tangled in the duvet and watching her with concern written all over his face. His phone lay lost beside him in the duvet after he had taken the call, his contact revealing the police's need for an eye witness to the data they'd been delivered.

"Don't act like I'm not right," Raven continued, coming over to kneel beside him. "I have the least to lose. I'm a Titan. Even if all this came about from associating with . . ." he raised an eyebrow at her, ". . . less than law abiding citizens, the consequences for me are far less than those for anyone else."

She pulled her hair over her shoulder and turned her back to him, presenting the zipper on the back of her leotard so he could help her zip it. He took a moment, still running through the idea of her going on record as a witness, before he sighed and sat up. This was one fight he just didn't see himself winning.

But it didn't mean he wasn't going to try. And he wasn't above playing dirty.

"Doesn't mean we can't stop and think for a second before you go rushing off and ruining your reputation," he whispered against the exposed skin of her back as he grabbed the zipper. He saw her tremble and smirked, laying a line of kisses up her spine as he slowly zipped her up. Her back arched as he forged his path. He pulled the zipper up the rest of the way and pulled her backward into his lap. He continued kissing his way across her shoulder blade and up the side of her neck.

"Jason," she breathed, intending to sound chastising but only succeeding in making him relish his name on her lips and he held her more tightly to him.

"You don't even want to talk about this?" he asked against the skin of her neck. "Take ten minutes to see if there's a way for you to not get tangled up in this and have this black spot on your honor?"

She turned to him and kissed him briefly. "Associating with you is hardly a black spot on any part of my life, Jason. Remind me to fill you in on my past someday. Believe me, I've done a lot worse." She rested her forehead against his. "I'm not even sure you could be considered a black spot at all."

"Still," he murmured, "all they're going to see is that you ran off with a known thief and enemy of the Titans, broke into a – from outward appearances – legitimate business and residence, and assaulted two men before even knowing for certain that there were children being held there. They're going to say that you flouted protocol and they're going to nail you to the wall for it."

She shifted and leaned over him, causing him to recline back.

"Maybe I don't care," she said menacingly, mirroring his words and posture from back in the hospital room days before.

He grabbed her by the waist and flipped her to the side before she had a chance to react, rolling over her so he was on top and straddling her waist.

"But _I_ do."

She sighed and stared up at him.

"Do you have any other ideas, Jason? Anything else that doesn't actually put someone's life in danger? I'll take a blow to my reputation, a suspension from duty, whatever they want if no one else has to risk their lives or freedom. So I'm all ears, Jason. Give me another option."

Of course he didn't have one.

So he did the only thing he could think of to distract her.

She sighed as he swooped down to claim her lips with his, but she didn't push him away either. She pulled him deeper before parting from him, the serious expression on her face letting him know that he wasn't going to be able to distract her from leaving. He heaved a sigh and rolled off of her, laying his head dejectedly on the floor.

She rose and cupped his cheek with her hand. He nuzzled into it before laying a kiss in her palm.

"I guess this is what I get for falling for a hero, huh? Too fucking good for her own damn good."

She smirked at him.

"What can I say? Annoying you has always been a specialty of mine."

He laughed as she turned toward the door, wondering exactly what he had gotten himself into in dragging Raven into all of this. But she smiled at him reassuringly as she slipped out the door and he couldn't help the smile that came to his face.

Stealing her had to be the best decision he'd ever made.

O • O • O • O

It had been a rough few hours.

Jason had called ahead and let his contact at the precinct know that a witness was coming, but that they wanted to keep their anonymity if possible. They had promised to take her in without fanfare but couldn't guarantee anonymity past that. Raven had accepted those terms.

She had shown up to the police station after a brief stop to pick up a pair of jeans, a black tank top, and a zippered hoodie to replace the leotard that was close to falling apart after all she'd been through the last couple of days. She kept her hood up as she entered the building and only dropped it after being escorted to the interrogation room with the two officers in charge of the case.

They hadn't known what kind of witness they were taking in today, but the sorceress of the Titans was probably the last person they expected.

She explained what had happen at the syndicate headquarters that night; how she had gotten a tip from a witness of the trafficking going on and how she had entered using stealth that she knew the police would be unable to utilize. She explained that her witness, her contact, had pulled Red X in because of his unique skills to help her and how their finesse was what had been needed, which was why she had gone through this without the help of the other Titans.

There were questions, of course.

So. Many. Questions.

But in the end they were quite pleased with the results. They shared secret smiles and slight nods of the head with the Titan as they made sure, without having to spell it out, that she knew they were glad that she had done what she had done. But on paper they had to condemn her methods, which they obviously didn't like doing, but Raven tried to convey that she understood the necessity of doing as such.

They told her that they had a strong case, but that they weren't going to get anywhere without testimonies from the families involved.

She had told them that she understood, but that she needed the clear conscious to know that there would be proper securities in place for these families. After detailing plans and reassurances Raven was satisfied with the results. She promised further communication with them and that she would see what she could do about procuring witnesses on the victims' side of the case.

The lead investigator was the only one remaining in the room with her when she was told that she was free to go. He walked with her to the door of the interrogation room and paused before opening the door.

"I just want to say thank you," he said, hurriedly, as if unsure that he had wanted to say the words out loud. Now that he was committed he continued more steadily. "I wanted to thank you for what you did. We've been trying to take down this syndicate for years. I had family indebted to them once upon a time, a brother. And he has a little girl, six years old this year. When I think about how that could have been them . . ."

Raven lay a hand on his shoulder and nodded, letting him know that she understood what he was saying. She smiled a small smile at him and he nodded back.

"If there's anything we can do for you, just let us know," he said.

"Actually, do you mind if I stay here for a minute?" she asked. "Collect myself? My powers . . . I need to keep them in check and -"

"You can take all the time you need," he interjected. "I'll let everyone know to steer clear. You can leave whenever you'd like."

"Thank you," she said, sincerely. Her exhaustion and relief at having a moment to herself creeping into her voice and he smiled at her before closing the door behind him.

She leaned against the wall and slid down it, slumping to the floor and taking a deep breath. She hadn't had a moment to herself in days. She took time to just be and it felt like taking a breath of air after spending too long underwater.

She considered taking the time to meditate, but before she could make a decision she heard voices in the hall outside of the door and her heart stopped in panic.

"She's been gone for almost three days now, Jim, and I don't know what to do. We're not sure if he's holding her or what's going on, but I know that she's in danger and I have to find her."

Robin's voice cut through her and she clamped down on their bond so that he would not feel her spike in emotions and reveal to him that she was there. She knew that she should step out and reveal herself, but she wasn't sure what she would say. She still had to figure out what this thing was that had developed between her and Jason and she had to do that before she tried to explain anything to Robin. If he saw her now she'd be under full surveillance immediately and she wasn't ready to be barred from Jason yet, no matter how long.

"I'll do whatever I can to help," another, older voice replied. "Just let me know what you need."

"I need her back, Jim. She . . . she means more to me than I can properly explain. I can't stand not knowing whether or not she's alright. I _need_ her back."

The conviction and emotion in his voice staggered Raven. Something in her was screaming to go into the hall and let Robin know she was here, but the temptation was lessened as the voices moved down the hall and out of earshot. She reached for the knob before deciding against it. She reminded herself how poorly Robin could react when he was furious. She'd be put on lockdown at the tower and Jason would be forced to swing in and do something stupid when she didn't show up as planned. She had to avoid that confrontation until she could figure out this mess that she was now in. She leaned her head against the door and sighed.

_What the hell am I doing?_ she asked herself. _He still deserves an explanation. _

She looked back to the table in the center of the room and grabbed the pad of paper that lay upon it. She wrote a hasty note, explaining to Robin what had happened with the syndicate. That she had saved a room full of children and that it had been Red X's plan and his participation that made it possible. She wrote that she was fine and safe and that she would call as soon as she was able and explain things fully. She wrote that she was sorry and that she would return to him soon, asking him to trust her in the meantime.

She folded the letter and opened the door, peeking out to make sure she didn't run into Robin before she was ready. She gave the note to the lead detective of the syndicate case and asked him to give it to Robin after she had left. He looked at her in surprise, wondering why she wouldn't speak with her leader herself, but he nodded and promised that he would. She thanked him and phased out of the police station and onto the street outside.

Her heart was beating rapidly as she walked away from the station, pulling her hood up as she went. She had only gone a block when an arm shot out from the alley as she passed and she was pulled into the shadows and her back pressed against the wall.

She called her powers to her hands before she heard a voice whisper in her ear, "You were gone so long, Little Bird. You had me worried."

She felt her muscles relax at the familiar voice and she recalled her powers from her hands, using them to shove Jason to the opposite wall of the alley instead.

"Why are you incapable of starting a normal conversation without resorting to kidnapping or pinning me to a wall?" she chastised, letting out a small laugh. "You fucking scared me."

"Well, turn about is fair play," Jason responded, stepping back up to her and pinning her shoulders to the wall, his voice a mix of mischief and veiled concern. "You scared me too. You've been gone for hours, Little Bird."

"You could have called," she said, pulling the burner phone from his condo out of her back pocket. "And don't tell me you forgot the number."

"You know me. I like to do things in person." He stepped up so his body was flush against hers, not releasing his grip on her shoulders. "Besides, the tracker in the phone is how I knew you were still at the station. But I'll admit I was afraid they were going to detain you."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course you put a tracker on me." She eyed him and cocked her head to the side. "You had to show up in the suit? This close to the police station? You really are an idiot."

"I think I'm safer around the police station as Red X than as myself, don't you think? I know a few of those officers. They got transferred here from Gotham once they made promotion. Couldn't chance them recognizing my face, Sunshine."

She nodded her understanding.

"It's alright," she said, finally telling him what he came to hear. "They believed me when I told them I had confirmation from a witness before I went in. While they're not necessarily pleased that I didn't involve them, or of my methods in general, this is the biggest break they've had in the case in years. They were willing to let some things slide. Even the mess I caused when I went back in to rescue you." She smirked up at him. "They're not thrilled about the 'Red X's involvement, my rescue of said thief, and you subsequent escape' part but . . . like I said, they were willing to let some things slide. Everything is fine Ja-"

She paused for a moment, looking at Jason's mask and realizing how quickly she could let his identity slip. She cursed herself and made a note to be more vigilant while he was masked.

"Everything is fine, X. I was going to call you once I was clear of the station."

He let out a long sigh and rested his forehead against hers.

"I cannot tell you how relieved I am, Little Bird. Either way I just couldn't wait any longer. I was going to give you another hour before doing something stupid. Then I saw you come out of the station and . . . I couldn't stay away from you any longer."

She could feel herself succumbing to the calm that she felt around him, but her thoughts drifted back to the police station and who was inside still looking for her. Jason looked into her eyes and could clearly see that she was visibly shaken, and not from his sudden appearance or her encounter with the police.

"What's wrong, Raven? Something has you spooked."

"Robin was there," she confessed. "He was talking with someone who said they'd help him look for me."

Red X stilled and she could see his jaw clench even through the mask. He reached out and stroked her face, but didn't say anything.

"I left him a note. I didn't know what to say yet, and I knew that if I went to him I wouldn't make it back to you as agreed. I knew it would force you to do something _stupid_, so . . . I left him a note. But I need to explain everything to him, X. In person, and soon. I owe him that."

"Yes," came another voice.

His voice made her blood freeze in her veins and her head whipped around to see Robin at the entrance of the alley, her folded letter held up in two fingers, fury written on his face.

" You owe me at _least_ that, Raven."


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thanks to all my readers and reviewers! Hopefully I'll get the next chapter up fairly soon since it's really just a continuation of this chapter. I appreciate all of you!

I do not own the Teen Titans or Phantom of the Opera (This disclaimer will make sense later this chapter.) I sincerely hope it all makes sense.

**Chapter 10**

Raven stared at Robin for a few tense seconds. Red X's hand dropped from when he had stroked her face. He slid it down her arm and twined his fingers with hers, ready to pull her back should things go south. The gesture didn't go unnoticed by Robin. His nostrils flared and the anger in his eyes was more unchecked than Raven could ever remembers seeing it.

"You're gone for days, Raven. _Days_!" he shouted. "I have to find out from worse than third party information that you were shot. You call _once_ to brush off the danger that you're in, you don't reveal when you're in the same building that I am, and you're in an alley with the same wanted criminal that _abducted you from the hospital_! I would love to hear your explanation of that, Raven!"

"You'll want to watch your tone when you speak to her," Red X growled in a threatening way. "Your beef is with me, chuckles."

"You're damn right it is, X," Robin spat, turning his attention to the thief. "Let. Her. Go."

"I'm not _keeping_ her, kid. Maybe it's your obviously cheerful disposition she's avoiding. I see you're just as high strung and possessive as rumors paint you to be."

Robin took a step toward Raven but Red X pulled on their joined hands and put himself between her and Robin. Robin spun his bo staff and held it at the ready, Raven's note falling to the floor.

"Stop trying to take her from me, X. You can't keep her."

"And _you_ don't fucking _own_ her."

"Stop!" Raven shouted, pulling Red X to the side and standing between them, a hand held out in defense against Robin and a hand at Red X's chest to hold him back. "Stop."

She took a step toward Robin, giving a pointed look at Red X as if telling him to stay put before she turned to her leader.

"Robin, I know you didn't leave that police station without hearing about the syndicate case that I wrote about. About the kids and the trafficking. It was all X, it was _his_ plan. He needed me to get those kids out and I went willingly. Whatever grief I've caused you in the past few days has been _my_ fault, Robin. And I'm sorry." Her voice broke at her last sentence, buckled by the guilt that weighed on it. "I am _so_ sorry."

"He still kidnapped you, Raven," Robin said, his voice softening. "_That_ part wasn't your fault. None of this would have even started if he hadn't taken it upon himself to make the decision for you and to just _take_ you."

He reached out to her, she was only a couple of steps away and if he could just touch her . . .

But Red X pulled her back again, growling as he did so in a possessive, almost feral way. He couldn't help the reaction, he couldn't risk losing her now that he finally had her. He knew she had a bond with Robin and, while he wasn't sure exactly how it worked, he couldn't take the chance that their physical contact would bring something to life between them and pull Raven back to her leader. He and Raven had _just_ found each other and he couldn't bear the thought of losing her now. Once he pulled her back he placed himself between her and Robin once more.

Robin took the gesture of him yanking her back so forcefully as a hostile one and he lashed out, a rapid succession of blows landing on Red X's defensively held arms. Red X waited for a break in Robin's onslaught and turned to the offensive, giving as good as he got. Raven stood by, fearing either would get hurt and tried her best to raise shields of her soul self to protect both the best that she could.

Raven finally managed to get a shield up between them to hold against their blows and they stood at a temporary standstill, glaring daggers at each other as they caught their breath.

"What's your game, X?" Robin demanded, his eyes moving back to Raven and trying to figure out why she wasn't taking the opportunity to flee her kidnapper now that the job she had willingly committed to was over. "Are you trying to convince her that you can be a hero? Because doing one good thing after a lifetime of crime and bad choices doesn't make you good. She got hurt on your watch, X, and putting Raven in so much danger over the last few days is certainly _not_ heroic."

"Who the fuck said anything about wanting to be heroic?" Red X drawled, standing to full height. "I'm only doing what I always do: looking out for number one. You should know me well enough by now, kid, I don't play the hero." He looked back at Raven and Robin heard his voice soften behind the voice synthesizer. "But I will, apparently, do surprising things for Raven. She brings out surprising sides of me."

Robin couldn't help the fury that rose in him at the silent exchange between his current nemesis and the woman he had stolen. He saw the small smile and tender look that she gave to Red X and he just . . . lost it. He managed to take advantage of Raven's distraction and threw and explosive disk at her shield, knocking it back and causing Raven to stagger. Robin and Red X fought anew now that the barrier between them was gone. Robin managed to knock Red X into the side of a dumpster and the thief struggled to get back up.

Raven moved to block his path, preventing Robin from stepping forward and finishing the job. She stared him down until he stopped his approach.

"Red X saved those kids the other night, Robin. And, yes, it was just _one_ act, but what would you call that act if not heroic? It's a _start_, Robin. Maybe there's more to him than the thief we thought we knew."

She looked back at Red X still fighting to get to his feet. She returned her stare to Robin.

"You're both acting like children," she seethed, her anger getting the better of her. "I promise you, Robin, that I will come home and explain _everything_, but for now you have to let him go. Please."

Robin finally strode forward the last few steps between himself and her and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her to him. His face was inches from hers.

"What has he done – what is he _doing_ – that's keeping you with him, Raven? Whatever it is, whatever he's using against you to make you stay, it doesn't matter. You can come home, Raven, and we'll figure it out." He cupped her face with his other hand, his thumb stroking her cheekbone. Their bond resonated between them and Raven gasped. She couldn't decipher what she felt through it but it was unlike anything she'd felt through it before. "You can come home with _me_. Right now."

She never managed to answer. A sucker punch from the side knocked Robin away from her and Red X ripped her from the hero's grip. He pulled her to his side instead of tucking her behind him again, as if to illustrate that he wasn't putting himself between them but, rather, she was staying with him.

"I'm doing _nothing_ to keep her with me," Red X snarled. "Unlike you, Boy Blunder, I don't need to exert any control over her or guilt her to get her to stay with me."

"You expect me to believe that she's willingly staying with the man that kidnapped her? That you're not holding any kind of control over her? That she's coming back _anywhere_ with you willingly?"

"She came to my bed _quite_ willingly, as it so happens," he retorted without pausing to think.

He hadn't meant to say it, but the words were out now and he stood at full height and his chest puffed out in bravado, not willing to show shame in front of Robin at blurting something out that he hadn't intended to.

Raven, however, held a hand to her forehead and shook her head, the folly of his words and the implications thereof freezing her blood. It took a moment for her to lower her hand and look at Robin, mentally preparing herself for his righteous fury.

But it's not what she got.

She expected rage, betrayal, disgust but she was staggered to see the hurt, the utter anguish that was plastered across his face as he looked at her. He looked wounded.

But that look was fleeting.

The rage that she had expected from him finally came as he noticed the dark circles that Red X's mouth had left of the column of Raven's throat. The thief had practically marked her as his and Robin felt something primal claw its way up through him at the thought. He turned his furious gaze at Red X.

"You _did_ something to her, X. You took advantage of her, exploited her! Whatever you did to her I will undo it and you _will_ pay for it!"

When they began fighting each other again, Raven could feel the change in the air; the change in the emotions they both emanated.

They weren't pulling any punches anymore. Robin wasn't letting his heroism keep his blows in check and Red X wasn't holding back for her sake anymore. Robin took a deep slash to the side from one of the X blades that Red X threw and the sickening crack that came from the next blow of Robin's staff to the thief's arm told Raven that the arm was broken. They both reached for their belts at the same time and Raven's eyes widened as she saw explosive disks in both of their hands.

She had had enough.

She engulfed both disks in her soul self as they flew at each other before either could reach their target, but she had underestimated the blast. She was knocked back, hard, and flung into the wall behind her.

Red X got to her before Robin scramble to her and the thief scooped Raven into his arms wincing as the arcs of pain from his broken arm screamed against his actions. She groaned and blinked hard, but couldn't get the world to focus yet. Robin skidded to a stop, fearing that he would run straight into them both and cause her further injury.

"If you take her again, X, you will sorely regret it! She keeps getting hurt around you and you _can't_ keep doing this to her."

"As I recall," Red X spat back, finally settling the Titan's legs in the crook of his elbow instead of on the shattered bones of his forearm, "it was on _your_ fucking watch that she almost died. In case you're keeping score."

Robin winced at the accusation and had no argument against it. Red X wasn't wrong.

"You didn't mind so much letting me take her then," the thief continued. "Now is no different. I'm doing what's best for her. I'm doing what she wants."

He looked at the dazed sorceress in his arms and he sighed. He lifted his masked face back to Robin, saying, "See you around, kid," before pushing the button on his belt with his elbow and teleporting away.

Robin screamed in anger and punched the brick wall beside him with all the power of his frustration. The bricks cracked beneath his fist, as did the bones of his knuckles. He stood long minutes in the alley, trying to calm his rage, before he managed to limp out with plans to resume his search for them.

O • O • O • O

Raven drifted in and out of consciousness. She remembered hearing Red X and Robin speak to each other but she couldn't remember what it was that they spoke of. She could feel the constriction of Red X's teleportation and she closed her eyes.

She opened her eyes in Nevermore.

She sighed and rolled her eyes, bracing herself for another round of trying to placate the warring factions of her emotions. She hadn't intended to come here but she was here now and she figured she may as well see if she could make some headway with them this time.

But it was surprisingly quiet. There was no shouting, no flux of emotions and it disconcerted her. They had been at war for weeks and for this sudden of a change to have taken place something big must have happened.

She summoned her emotions to her and was surprised at the prompt arrival of all of them. They seemed at ease with one another, Lust, Pride, and Knowledge all standing by one another. Which was extremely suspicious since they were the front runners of the war in her head since that first night with Red X. It was strange to see them together without hostility.

Joy approached her first, before Raven could even get a word out to any of them.

"Isn't the peace wonderful?!" she asked, positively beaming.

Usually Raven found happiness and a strange comfort in Joy; she reminded her of Starfire in a lot of ways. But right now she needed answers so she simply nodded at her before addressing the three that had drawn her attention.

"What in the hells is going on here?" Raven demanded. "You're all at odds for weeks, giving me no peace and now suddenly you're all singing fucking kumbaya?! What happened to all out war? What happened to 'fighting for my fate' or whatever bullshit you all said last time?"

Lust looked at her with a haughty expression, shrugged, and walked away leaving Raven seething. But before she could pursue her Pride reached out to grab her shoulder and spoke up.

"We know when it's time to back down," she said simply, gesturing to Knowledge and a handful of others that had been on her side during the conflict. "New developments have come to light and, now, so has our position."

"What the hells could have possibly changed that much in the last few days?"

"You know how much I dislike taking action without logic to back it," Knowledge said, "but our instinct goes a long way, as it is rooted in magic. Our instinct says that our opinion of the thief my have been incorrect. Something about him has a positive effect on our magic and we cannot fight against that. You must admit that this relationship is now beneficial to us all, as ill conceived as its conception may have been." Her last sentence was aimed at Lust's retreating back and she gave a flippant wave of the hand to acknowledge that she had heard Knowledge, but did not seem to care. She had gotten her way and that was all that mattered to her.

Raven stared at the pieces that made up her whole and found that she had no words.

"So . . . that's it?!" she finally asked. "Something about our 'instinct' now has you all on board with this?"

They all nodded.

Raven didn't have any more to say and she simply willed herself back to consciousness.

Jason sighed as he saw her eyes open. She was still in his arms and he walked over to set her on his bed. He had brought her back to his condo and, as he was just now depositing her on his bed, she couldn't have been out that long. Plus he would have been frantic if she had been.

He hissed and winced as he pulled away his broken arm and she swore before reaching out and holding her hands against it as gently as she could.

"Raven, it's fine," Red X said in a cold voice, removing his mask with his good right hand. "Save your strength. You took a hard blow."

"And it's back to my name again. Awesome. Will you please stop arguing and let me do this?"

He frowned at her but allowed her to continue her healing.

"You've said that before," he accused. "What do you mean about your real name?"

She took a minute of silence, closing her eyes to focus on healing. Once she had reset the bones and done most of the major work she answered him.

"I can probably count on one hand the amount of times that you've called me by my actual name. You've used a nickname . . . several, in fact, the entire time I've known you. These last few days you only go to my real name when you're upset . . . or when you need something. And since you're chastising me I have to assume that you're upset."

She knitted the broken bits of his arm back together and finally released it, her eyes opening. He flexed his fingers and shook his head in wonder.

"I didn't feel a thing," he whispered. He finally looked at her. "Thank you," he said with sincerity.

She nodded in response.

"So what is it that has you using-my-real-name upset this time?" she pressed.

His jaw clenched and he stood at full height, staring down at her.

"I can't keep doing this, Raven. I can't keep putting you in danger. Believe me, I am loathe to admit that Robin might be right about anything, but he might be right about this. You keep getting hurt around me and maybe that's a sign. Maybe you shouldn't be around me."

"Hey!" she shouted, jumping up from the bed and jabbing a finger into Jason's chest. "You don't get to make that decision for me. _I_ get to choose what risks I do and do not take. And I take risks every day, Jason. It's a side effect of the whole hero business, remember? So stop trying to be the martyr here and let me make my own decisions."

"And if you're making terrible decisions?"

She stared hard at him.

"You mean like the terrible decision of flaunting your conquest of me at the leader of my team just to get a rise out of him? You don't get to use me or anything between us that way."

He sighed, not having a response to that. She was right, he had no right to out their relationship to Robin. He hadn't intended to do that but it didn't change the fact that he had.

They spend the next hour in a knockdown, dragout fight. It kept cycling back to him fearing that he was dangerous to her, to her screaming that she had the right to choose for herself, to her threatening to leave, to him looking murderous at the thought of her returning to the tower with Robin. She was exhausted, but she wasn't going to let him walk away with such conflict in his mind and between the two of them.

"Why?" she asked for what felt like the hundredth time, but this time giving in to the frustration and exhaustion. He had his back turned to her and not seeing his face helped allow her to let out her anger. "Why are you doing this? Why are you pushing me away and yet unwilling to let me go?! Why are you acting like this?!"

"Because I can't lose you, Raven!" he shouted, spinning around to face her. "I can't _stand_ the thought of having to live in a world that doesn't have you in it! I can't _lose_ you."

She paused, her chest heaving from their shouting, and simply stared at him. He stood, returning her stare. He hadn't meant to say what he said, apparently that was a trend for him today.

She still had no response to his vulnerable answer and he finally continued, his voice quiet now.

"I don't know how to explain it, Little Bird. I mean we've only had this weird heat between us for a few weeks and this . . . _deeper_ connection has only been, good God, three days. But I can't think about losing you without my chest constricting and putting me in a downright panic. I wasn't kidding about not doing attached, Raven, and this is terrifying.

"But the only thing more terrifying than that is anytime I think that I'm going to lose you. You keep getting hurt, Robin has a point at that, and . . . it's better to have you alive and not with me than dead _because_ of me. But the thought of you and Robin . . . it makes my blood boil, Little Bird. I know I don't make any sense right now. _I_ don't even know what I want. Because I want you safe . . . but I don't want you with him. Either choice I make I'll be doing exactly what I don't want: losing you. Either I push you away and lose you – the only thing that's ever felt this right – to the last person I want you with, or I keep you and chance the possibility that you get killed from associating with me. I can't win."

He walked up to her and stood before her.

"I know how you feel about him. I could see it in your face that night on the roof of the tower. The thought that I might lose you to him . . . I'm not ready for that."

She reached out to touch his face but he pulled back before she could.

"I'm also not ready for you to get hurt because of me, Little Bird. That possibility I just can't handle."

They stared at each other for a time, Raven hoping that they had finally hit a break in their fight and that she might finally be getting through to him. But he pulled away.

"It's classic Phantom of the Opera, Raven," he said, slumping to the bed, sitting on the edge of it and staring at her.

". . . What?" she asked, confused at the turn in conversation.

"You know Phantom, yes?" he asked. He continued when she nodded.

"My bet is that you like it because, for a moment, the Phantom has her. This creature of darkness gets a hold of some light and it looks like things might actually work out. But it doesn't. She chooses light herself and you lament the Phantom for losing out.

"But it's fantasy, Raven. You want the Phantom to get to keep her because she makes him better, he needs her. But he's not a good man, Raven. He's done terrible things and if it were you in her shoes you have to admit that you would choose the light too. It's a romantic story to think of her staying with the Phantom, but that's all it is: a story. It's a situation that only works in a story. These relationships never last in real life. Eventually she would realize that he's nothing but danger to her."

"What the fuck are you getting at?" she asked, confusion written on her face.

"You're my light, Raven! And all I do is put you in danger! This relationship doesn't work in the real world." He stood again and walked to where she stood, taking time to just look at her. "But just like him I can't let you go, either."

He finally gave in and reached out to stroke her face. "I'm lost without you, Little bird. And I just don't know what to do about it."

She softened at his touch and his tone. She held his hand to her face, leaning her head against it. She stared into the green depths of his eyes and tried to put the force of her conviction and her emotions into her next words in the hopes that he would understand.

"It's a hazard of caring for someone, Jason. You can't shy away from that. You can't live in fear of what _might_ happen. You won't be _living_ that way."

She stepped up so her body was flush against his, and she wrapped her arms around him, hoping he wouldn't shy away from her. She let out a relieved sigh when his arms encircled her.

She let out a small laugh and he pulled back to look at her inquisitively.

"I mean, you're in this thing with a half demon and you're convinced that _you're_ the Phantom representation? It's not a matter of a dark entity and a light one with us, Jason, it's about how we temper each other. Whatever light we have to tempter the other's darkness. _That's_ why this isn't just a story with no hope in reality. _That's_ why we work. But you have to stop pushing me away out of fear."

She called on every empathic power she had to convey her sincerity as she pulled away just enough to look up at his face.

"As for what I feel for Robin, you're just going to have to trust me, Jason. You're going to have to trust that what we have now is strong enough to stand on its own. You said that you could see on my face that night what I felt for him. So look. What do you see now?"

He stared into her amethyst eyes, took in her face and the depth of emotion there. He could _feel_ the projection of her emotions and it did nothing less than stagger him. She looked at him the same way she had looked at Robin. It felt deep. It felt _real_.

His lips were on hers in an instant. She sighed against them as she felt his inner conflict ease. He pulled her into him and felt contentment wash over him. She was here. She was with him. She had had every chance to leave from the moment she went to the police station. Robin had offered her a physical out not an hour before and she could have fled at any point during his fight with Robin. But she had stayed. She had protected him from Robin as much as she had protected her leader from him. And she was _here_.

It was like a weight had lifted from his shoulders and he pulled away from her just so he could look at her face and marvel at the fact that she was here. She gave him a small smile and chewed on the corner of her lower lip in that fetching way of hers and he couldn't help but laugh as he rested his forehead against hers.

"Jason," she whispered tentatively. He pulled back to look at her again, hearing the seriousness in her tone. "I owe him an explanation, though. And I owe it to him in person, especially after today."

"I know," he whispered back in defeat. "I know, Little Bird."

"But trust that I will be back here as soon as it's over, Jason. Trust that I'll come back to you. Trust me."

He smiled at her and nodded, finally finding a peace within. He could do nothing but trust that she felt as strongly for him as he did for her. He had to let her go.

"I trust you, Raven," he murmured into her hair as he pulled her back into him. "And with that trust, I have to offer you your choice."

She looked up at him in confusion.

"I know how you feel for him – and before you start, yes, I'm aware that you feel for me too – but you have to know something. _He_ feels for you too, Raven. And while what we have might be real, I can't help but feel like what you have with him is real too. You have a history, Little Bird, and that counts for a lot. This is your decision . . . and I have to let you make it."

"Jason . . ." she started, but he held onto her shoulders and kept her a step away.

"I'm not saying that I assume you'll chose him, I'm just saying that I need you to know that you're free to. I told him that I wasn't doing anything to keep you with me. Now it's time that I proved that."

She reached out for his face but he held her wrist and moved her arm back to her side.

"This is something that was going to have to happen eventually, Little Bird. But you should go, now, before I realize how stupid it is for me to let you go do this."

She nodded and he let go of her wrist and her shoulder. She called her soul self around her to return to the tower, but before she wrapped herself in it she surged forward and gave him a parting kiss.

"Wait for me, Jason," she whispered. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

With that her shadowy form surrounded her and she was gone.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

She appeared in the shadows of her soul self right in the middle of the Comm room. She figured that he'd be there and, even if he wasn't, there was almost never more than one person there at a time. She'd have fewer people to explain things to before getting to the person that she needed to speak to most.

She wasn't disappointed.

Robin swiveled the chair at the sound of her feet hitting the floor and he froze. She stood for a moment trying to read him or glean anything at all from their bond but he remained unreadable, his face revealing nothing and his bond clamped tight. She sighed, defeat evident in her face. She opened her mouth to speak but didn't get out a sound before Robin sprang from his chair and enveloped her in a tight embrace.

She was shocked, this not being the first reaction that she expected, but she wrapped her arms around him immediately. They knew each other so well and being close to him always made her feel comforted.

A hundred thoughts ran through Robin's head as he held Raven in his arms. He had been planning the speeches and admonishments he would give her when he saw her, but when she appeared there before him there was no other course of action that he could think to do than to take her in his arms. He was so relieved that she was here and the feel of her arms reciprocating his embrace calmed the rage that he had expected.

She could feel the roiling emotions within him through their bond. Now that they were so close it was harder for him to hide the swell of feelings within him. She knew of his fury, his disappointment, his mild disgust, but she also felt his fear, and his relief that she was home.

She gasped when she felt his pain. His physical pain.

She pulled away from him and grabbed his right arm, looking at the makeshift wrap he had covered his bare hand with.

"Robin," she admonished. She had wanted to convey her concern, but the judgment in her tone for him being here in the comm room instead of the med bay made a laugh escape him before he could contain it. She could feel the reason for his laugh and she glared at him as she unwrapped his hand.

She hissed as she saw the bruised flesh and felt the cracked bones beneath. She looked at his face as she laid a hand gently on his and began to heal him.

"What happened?"

He lost all semblance of mirth.

"I let my anger get away with me is all," he said curtly, though she could sense his relief at the reduction in pain from his hand. "I'm sure you can understand why, Raven."

She looked down at his hand, feigning the need for concentration – even though she was almost done with her healing – to avoid eye contact. She checked him for more injuries and moved to heal the slice that he had taken in his side as well, and there was silence between them the whole time. She finally finished her healing and looked to his face once more. His expression was unreadable and he had clamped down on the bond again, making it more difficult for her to understand what he was feeling.

"I'm ready for this famous explanation that you've been promising," he said coldly, his relief being swapped out for his anger and frustration as he sat down.

Raven sighed and looked to the ceiling as if imploring some greater power for strength before she looked back at Robin.

She explained everything.

She told him about the strange flirtation with Red X that led to the first kiss. She told him about the other encounters and the other kisses that had inevitably come and why she had kept it from him. She pointedly looked at his newly healed hand to illustrate how poorly he took his frustration sometimes.

She told him about waking in the hospital after Red X had saved her and of the night they spent just talking. She told him about her abduction from the hospital and the mission that they had pulled off together. She explained . . . everything. Including the fact that her powers didn't lash out when she was with him and what her soul fragments had told her about their magic-based instinct and how they were at peace with the situation because of it, and they were at peace because something about him tamed her powers.

He sat through all of it, staring at her. She felt his emotions shift depending on the revelations of her story and she felt an undercurrent during the whole thing. It felt like . . . defeat. It didn't make sense and she was having a hard time understanding it.

She stood watching him after she was done, waiting for a reaction or a solid emotion to dominate his confusion. But he just sat with his elbows on his knees, leaning forward and staring at his hands.

"I know it sounds insane," she said, "but . . . my powers benefit from him and my emotions have stopped warring. They're almost tame around him; nothing breaks when . . . nothing breaks when we're . . . close, and not even when we fight. Nothing broke even today and we argued for an hour."

"You fought?" he asked quietly, speaking the first words since she started her explanation. He wasn't sure why that was the point that he had reacted to, but the words had come out regardless.

"It's Red X, Robin, of course we fought. But as tumultuous as this relationship-" Robin winced at the word. "-is bound to be, for instances of high emotions to not end in everything in the room breaking . . . it has to _mean_ something."

She knelt in front of his chair, forcing him to look at her.

"I'm not going to end what I have with him, Robin. I understand that you may not like it . . . or be able to forgive it. But I can't just give up on it."

"You _know_ how I feel about this, Raven. How I feel about _him_. And I just can't reconcile the Red X that I know with the one that you just told me about. I can't be okay with this."

She nodded at him and he could feel her heartbreak through the bond. He could tell that she didn't want to lose him any more than she wanted to lose Red X – which was the only redeeming thing about this whole encounter with her – but he just wasn't sure he could see a world where this situation worked.

"I know," she whispered. "And I know that this is my choice, mistake or not, and I will take the consequences of them, but this is the choice that I'm making. I . . . I understand if this means that my decision will cost me my place on the team." She choked on her voice momentarily. "I completely understand if that's part of the repercussions of my actions."

A lightbulb shattered above them and Raven closed her eyes in an attempt to reign in her powers, but the closing of her eyes allowed a tear to slide down her cheek that she had been desperately trying to hold inside. Robin's face softened and he reached out to wipe the tear from her cheek. The contact made her eyes fly open again and she could feel that the anger in him had ebbed.

"It'll take more than that to take you from the team," he said gently, his voice breaking. "From _me_. Whether you believe it or not, Raven, I feel just as deeply for you as Red X does."

She was starting to think that she _did_ believe him. But before she could tell him that, he released his hold that he had on their bond and she could feel everything that he projected now about how he felt for her and part of her broke. She had wanted this for so long, had wanted him to feel the same way about her that she had felt about him, had wanted him to tell her . . . but it had come too late.

She let loose her end of the bond as well and she saw Robin's face crumble. He could feel how she felt for Red X _and_ what she felt for him, what she had felt for him for some time but hadn't thought that he'd felt the same. He had confessed his feelings too late. Red X had found a place in her heart and she had made her decision. Her tie with him was somehow as deep and strong as her tie with himself and Red X had just taken the next step first. It was time for Robin to stand down. He had to accept that it was partially his fault that she wasn't choosing him.

The unfiltered emotions between them were breaking Raven too. She could remember what she had overheard him saying at the police station, when he had voiced his need to find her and that she had meant more to him than he had been able to convey. She felt, now, what that truly meant.

He sighed and she felt the bond clamped off again as he tried to regain his composure.

She wondered if things would have been different if he had said something before any of this Red X insanity had ever happened. She felt sure, after no more than a moment's thought, that it would have been.

Everything would have been different.

"I'm sorry, Robin," she said, looking at the floor when she found she couldn't meet his gaze. "I don't pretend to understand what's going on, but . . . somehow I'm better for it. And I can't lose that now that I've found it."

She finally lifted her face to look at his masked one and wished that she could look him in the eyes. But she wasn't sure she could handle it if she had to face his naked eyes. She very well might be in love with him, but she had made her decision.

"I have to go back," she said gently. "You two are actually more alike than you'd like to admit; he's going to lose it if I disappear on him. But I'll be back, Robin. My time will be divided, now, but the tower is my home. I'm not leaving and I'm still a Titan."

He nodded his understanding and stood, extending a hand to help her rise to her feet. He reached out to cup her face in the hand that she had healed. He stared into her face, his brow knitting as if he was wrestling with a decision.

He reached up with his other hand and removed his mask, a move that surprised Raven. She'd only seen him without his mask a handful of times in all the time that she'd known him and the piercing blue eyes shocked her every time. She saw the sorrow in her eyes reflected in his. They both mourned the way things might have been. He stared at her hard for quite some time before leaning forward and kissing her.

It was gentle, but full of so much passion as Robin once more let go of the clamp that he had held on their bond, letting her feel _everything_ that he felt. He put it all into that kiss. Again, she couldn't help but lament the fact that this exact thing was what she had wanted for so long and as she tried to accept the tragedy of the timing, she found that she was reciprocating the kiss. She hadn't been able to help it with his emotions fueling her own.

And just as she could feel what he put through the bond, he could feel her emotions again too. The part of him that had broken at the fact that he hadn't brought himself to tell her how he felt sooner ground its sharp edges into his heart as it swelled with the feel of her lips on his. If only he had said something. All of this could have been different.

She finally regained her senses after what she was sure was too long and pulled away slowly, blinking up into those blue eyes of his. He spoke before she could.

"I just . . . I couldn't go on not having done that at least once," he breathed.

She stared into his naked eyes and found that she couldn't move. Her emotions were at war once more in her and she couldn't make a move toward him _or_ away for him. She stood at a crossroad and found herself panicking.

Robin saw the conflict in her eyes, felt it in her, and when she didn't move away he made a decision to throw caution to the wind. To go all in.

He pulled her face to his and kissed her again, fiercely, with all the desire in him and waited to see if she kissed him back. The screen of the monitor behind him shattered.

O • O • O • O

Jason was pacing. He was trying to keep calm, trying to realize that he was being an idiot, but he couldn't help it.

He had tried to keep his mind on _anything_ else, but everything he tried proved to be futile. He had tried reading only to find that he was reading the same paragraph over and over again and his brain _still_ wasn't picking up on any of the words. He had tried watching tv but he just kept changing the channel over and over again. He had tried doing something physical but every push up, every sit up only worked him up and made him want to teleport to the tower and punch Robin in his stupid face hard enough to knock his mask off.

So here he was, pacing. He paced in front of the large windows of his condo, looking at Titans tower in the bay and trying to convince himself not to go there and at least eavesdrop on what was happening.

But she would know. She could always tell when people were lying and he was no exception to that. And he _did_ trust her. He had to show her that he trusted her. So: pacing.

He paced because, while he might trust her, he didn't trust Robin. He didn't trust the man who hated him to do him any favors and keep his hands off the woman they both wanted. And they had that damn bond between them. If he made a move would she be able to resist it? He had told her that she had a choice and now he hated the part of him that had made the offer.

A shadow flitted at the corner of his eye and he turned to see her raven figured soul self drop from around her as she appeared in his living room, her hoodie unzipped and flapping slightly as her soul self retreated.

He couldn't help the stupid grin that came to his face that she had come back, but the tormented look in her eyes had his heart choking him as it leaped into his throat. He approached her but she held her hand out to stop him before he managed to embrace her.

"Everything is fine," she breathed, as though she was out of breath either from exertion or panic.

"Why do I fucking doubt that?" Jason sighed.

"It's fine, Jason. I'll remain a Titan, though I guess now we'll have to explain to the team that you're . . . in a kind of limbo, I guess, between criminal and hero. We'll have to keep working on that front. But . . ."

"There's the 'but' I was dreading."

She sighed and stared at him for a moment.

"I explained everything to Robin and he . . . he opened the bond between us and I felt . . . everything."

Jason's blood was turning to ice in his veins and he found himself rooted to the spot.

"He-he kissed me, Jason. And I was so enthralled by everything that I felt that I . . . I kissed him back. He said that he had to do that at least once but then . . . he did it again.

"I am so sorry, Jason. I don't know what came over me. I have no excuses for how I reacted."

He nodded slowly, processing her words and studying her face.

"You've felt so much for him for so long, Raven. Just as he had to kiss you at least once I think that you needed to feel it too."

Her face contorted at his understanding, but he couldn't tell if it was desperate relief or anguish and he asked the question that he feared most.

"But you're here now," he started. "Are you here to stay . . . or to hand me my heart?"

She stared at him in confusion for a moment before she let out a burst of almost hysterical laughter.

"Gods, I am so stupid. I'm sorry, Jason, I didn't do _any_ of this right. I wasn't trying to push you away, I just wanted to make sure all of that was out in the open from the start. The monitor shattered when he kissed me the second time and I guess it shook me to my senses. I told him that I had made my choice. I grabbed some things from my room and . . . I left."

He noticed for the first time the small bag that she had dropped at her feet as she materialized, containing what belongings she had grabbed from the tower.

She walked up to him and stroked his face as she smiled up at him.

"I'm here for _you_, Jason. I chose _you_. I _choose_ you."

She kissed him, slow and deep and it took him a moment for her words to truly sink in. She pulled back and smiled at him again. "You idiot," she whispered.

His face transformed and he was positively beaming as he threw his arms around her and kissed her again, guiding her back to his bed. He followed her as she fell onto the sheets and stole another deep and penetrating kiss before leaning over her shoulder.

"Let him have his stolen kisses, then," he whispered. "Consider it a consolation prize."

He stroked the hair out of her face and smirked at her. "Somehow I get to keep the real prize that I've stolen."

He swooped in and took her lips with his again, still not sure how it was that she had chosen him over Robin. All he knew was that he was the luckiest thief in Jump City and he wasn't going to take what he had for granted. He was enthralled by her and he was about to make sure that she felt exactly how much.

O • O • O • O

Raven heard a strange sound that she knew should sound familiar, but in the haze of sleep the understanding of what it was eluded her. She took a deep breath, not wanting to wake but curiosity getting the better of her. She opened her eyes to see Jason holding up his phone in front of his face. She heard the camera shutter sound again and finally realized what was happening.

"What in the hells do you think you're doing?" she asked sleepily, narrowing her eyes at him. She could see from his incredible view that the sun was just cresting over the horizon. "It is _far_ too early for this shit."

He smirked, hearing in her tone that she was being playful. Mostly.

"You're cute when you sleep. Especially when it's only in that." He nodded his head toward his black button down shirt that she was wearing over nothing else but a pair of dark blue panties. "I can't help wanting to remember this image, Little Bird."

He took another picture of her as she laughed, looking up at him lovingly.

"Is that all?" she drawled. "Because that's not creepy at all, Jason Todd."

She laughed again and grabbed his arm, pulling him down to lay beside her. He hummed in contentment and slid his head to be right next to hers on the pillow. He held up his phone and snapped a picture of them both before pulling the phone to his face, hitting some buttons, and laying the phone on his chest.

The phone, _her_ phone that she had grabbed from the tower, buzzed on the nightstand and she looked at him confused before reaching out to grab it. She unlocked it and found that he had sent her the picture. She stared at the rather charming picture of the two of them, her hair splayed on the pillow beneath them both as they looked at the camera with wry amusement, before turning back to him.

". . . How the fuck did you get my number?"

"Come on, Little Bird," he said smugly. "Hacking a phone is nothing. You were asleep for quite awhile. I put my number in there for you. It's under 'Lancelot.'"

"The knight that stole Guinevere from King Arthur . . ."

She shook her head at him, letting out a small laugh before looking back at the photo and smiling.

"You sent it to me. If Robin ever sees this he would recognize you instantly. Why risk it?"

He shrugged and nuzzled the side of her face with his.

"I just wanted you to have something of us for when you're out in that tower without me. You've kept my identity safe so far, Little Bird. I trust you."

She smiled a wicked grin at him before tossing aside her phone, throwing her leg over his hip and straddling him. She leaned over him, her hair forming a curtain around their faces.

"How much do you trust me, Jace?"

He grinned at both her boldness and her nickname for him, grabbing her hips and arching his into hers.

"Enough to let you do whatever it is that you're thinking of, Little Bird," he purred.

"We'll see if you regret that . . . _Lancelot_," she laughed.

O • O • O • O

Robin heard his phone text alert go off. He opened his eyes, watching the sun now well over the horizon, and sighed. He had come up here to the roof where he and Raven had spent so much of their time together – either in companionable silence, deep conversation, or while she was teaching him the art of meditation – in the hopes that he would find a sense of calm about the whole situation, but to no avail. He still had this searing pain in his chest and an anger that he didn't know how to quell.

He had kissed her, twice, and it was everything that he had ever imagined that it would be. And she had kissed him back and he had those agonizing few minutes of thinking that he might still have a chance to fix his mistake.

But she had left. She had left to be with the thief that she had fallen for and he didn't know how to start living with that.

He reached over and grabbed his phone, unlocking it and opening his text messages. He had one unread message from a blocked number. His brows knit together as he clicked on it. His number was unregistered. Who would have it that wasn't already in his contacts?

A picture opened on his screen and his blood boiled at the sight of it.

Black and purple hair splayed over a soft pillow, delicate hands draped on the pillow by a sleeping face with a small smile tugging at the corner of the mouth, body curled into a graceful arc. The sleeping figure of Raven was relaxed and peaceful, dressed only in a man's black button down shirt, the edge of a pair of dark blue panties peeking out from where the shirt had ridden up along her outer thigh.

A message had come with the picture. "You may have managed some stolen kisses, kid, but it looks like I won the true prize. Don't try it again. She made her choice."

Another image appeared beneath as Red X sent another picture, this one of an awake Raven caught in the middle of a laugh with her eyes trained on the photographer with a smoldering look that Robin had longed to be for him. "She's happy," read the text below.

He felt a tidal wave of emotions ranging from rage to longing to disgust. _This_ was the Red X that he knew; cruel and calculating and self serving. Yet, somehow, he had convinced Raven that there was more to him and Robin still wasn't convinced that it wasn't just one big con.

He moved to erase the messages, but his finger hovered over the button for a long while. He stared at the images of Raven, images that he had dreamed of seeing in his own bed, and found that he couldn't bring himself to delete them. He set the phone down on the rooftop beside him and felt disgust again, but this time for himself.

He had no idea what to do now.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: There is an M rated and T rated version of this fic. This is the T rated version.

**Chapter 12**

Tensions were high at the tower, Robin having saved telling the rest of the team as a task for Raven to do. There was a lot of confusion – and plenty of ill timed, biting and barbed jokes from Beast Boy and brotherly outrage from Cyborg – but eventually it took Starfire to put things right. After hours of discussion, accusation, interrogation, and interspersed long moments of awkward silences Raven sat on the edge of the couch, feeling everyone's shock and sensing Robin's stare burning a hole in her back. Her elbows rested on her knees, her arms hanging limp in front of her, and she was slumped over with her forehead resting on her wrists. Starfire stepped up and knelt in front of her friend, waiting until Raven lifted her face to look at her.

"Whomever you choose to love is no one's decision but your own, friend Raven," she said, gently but with enough force to ensure that the others heard her words. "Perhaps it is that you do not owe us the explanation of your heart for we would be terrible friends to act otherwise. Our behavior has been worse than that of a Clorbag Varblemelk." She gave a pointed look to the others in the room and none of them could keep eye contact with her for more than a moment at the truth of her words. "We should be here to show you the support but we have let our own feelings prevent us from doing so, and for that I am truly sorry."

Raven looked like she might cry, her face showing all the emotion for her friend before her as her mug shattered on the coffee table. She didn't even acknowledge it. To hear her friend say such things in support of her after hours of being berated was the breath of air that she so desperately needed.

"If what you wish is to pursue the relationship of romance with the Red X and you truly believe him to be someone worth our trust then I shall stand with you. As _should_ we _all_."

Raven could feel the astonishment from everyone else in the room – almost in a physical, palpable shock wave – as she surged forward and threw her arms around the Tamaranian's neck. Starfire's arms crushed her friend to her, lest this be the only hug she ever received actually initiated by the empath, and Raven could feel the next wave of emotion creep in from her friends.

Shame. They felt shame for what they had just put her through. When it all came down to it they came to realize that they trusted her and if they trusted her and _she_ trusted Red X then they should be able to give her the benefit of the doubt. But they had been so focused on their own feelings that they didn't take that fact into account, and it had taken Starfire to make them see their error.

Robin was the only one who did not feel that shame, though he kept a tight reign on his bond to prevent Raven from feeling that. He still felt that he was justified in not trusting Red X despite his best friend's endorsement of the thief. He had photos on his phone that gave him just reason to still hate the man, though it wasn't something that he could tell to the others. He couldn't explain, to them or even to himself, why he still had those pictures. He just hadn't been able to bring himself to delete them. He had hoped, in the deepest part of him, that the team would convince her that she was wrong. But now those hopes were dashed.

_That_ he did feel guilt over. He couldn't just trust Red X for Raven's sake, but he did feel guilty that he had hoped for the rest of their friends to interfere with her happiness. He wanted, more than most things, for her to be happy.

Just not with Red X.

Raven looked up from her place in the middle of an unintended group hug with her repentant friends, her eyes seeking out Robin. He stood straight, nodded at her, and left the room. It was all the response he could give her.

She closed her eyes and sighed, knowing that this was one of those repercussions that she had agreed to take on in result of her choice. She was just going to have to find a way.

O • O • O • O

The following weeks went by in a haze of heightened emotions. She was balancing emotional highs around Jason with tension and turmoil around her team. While they may have agreed to trust her on this she knew that they still had a hard time coming to terms with a change of status for a thief that had plagued them for so long.

The first thing that had come after Starfire had swayed the team back to the side of loyalty to Raven was the question she had been dreading: Who was Red X?

But she couldn't tell them that. Jason had been keeping his existence hidden for this long, though she still wasn't completely sure of his reasoning, and he wanted to keep it that way for his sake. She knew it was going to add to the chord of dissonance that she had already strummed within the Titans, but she refused to betray his confidence. Her simple act of defiance in refusing to answer that question had been the thing to prevent the total acceptance of the situation from her friends.

She had received a bit of relief from the tension when Red X's thieving began to take a turn, the thief procuring stolen goods and returning them to their rightful place instead of the other way around – but it didn't hurt that he was making a tidy living from claiming rewards in the process. The change in his tactics gave some credence to the claims that Raven had made about him, but there was too much unknown about him for the others to just completely accept him yet.

Her one constant in all of the chaos that she had caused was Starfire. The two had grown closer with everything that had happened and she was the one person who seemed to care about how things were going in the other half of her life. She was her light at the tower and she was truly grateful to count her as a friend.

And so she found herself one afternoon – some weeks after her announcement to the Titans – in her favorite tea shop, the animated alien beside her, and her former criminal lover taking a seat at the table across from them. Starfire was taken back by how handsome he was, but she wondered how much of what she was seeing was the real persona behind Red X.

She looked at the simple silver ring that he wore, etched with runes and symbols. Raven had explained the ring and what it would do; mask his features enough that he would not be recognizable in his true form. She looked at his sandy blond hair, his hazel eyes, his bronzed skin and wondered if any of the features that she noticed were truly his.

"Starfire," Raven said, "meet Red X. More or less."

Starfire reached out a hand, "In the world outside of the tower I am known as Kori."

Jason held out his hand and shook hers. "Peter."

Raven's brow furrowed for a moment in confusion before she shook it off. Jason smirked at her and winked which was rewarded by an eyeroll from Raven.

They spent a pleasant afternoon together and it calmed some of the discord in her to have at least part of the two halves of her life be able to come together in some kind of harmony. She was happier than Starfire could remember seeing her in weeks and she knew that it was because of the man that sat across from them who couldn't help but steal glances at her friend and smiling. They were loosely holding hands on the table, the gesture looking comfortable and natural to them as his thumb absentmindedly rubbed over her knuckles.

Starfire was happy. She was happy because Raven was truly happy. As they left the tea shop, the man who called himself Peter nuzzling Raven's face with his before giving her a sweet kiss and making sure he'd see her later before he left the girls on their own. Raven watched him go for a moment before turning back to her friend who was attempting a sly smile and failing. She was beaming and Raven couldn't help but laugh.

"Thank you," Starfire said, taking her friend by the hand. "It was an honor to be trusted with meeting him."

"I should be the one thanking you," Raven responded. "You were the one to support me this whole time. You've been an amazing friend, Kori."

"The others wish to be good friends too, Raven. They simply need the convincing. Perhaps if the one who calls himself Peter wears the ring he might join us at the tower! We could do the hanging out and they will find him just as acceptable as I have! Perhaps your life will be less damaged if we can repair the rift."

Raven laughed a small laugh, before reigning in the reaction.

"Sorry, but I don't think that will work, Star. You're the only one at the tower that I can trust not to rip the ring off of him the moment we arrive. I can't trust them to resist unmasking Red X. But I appreciate the thought. Just having the two of you meet was remarkably helpful. Like two halves of my life have finally come together and healed something in me. So thank you. Again."

Starfire could resist the urge to hug her friend no longer and threw her arms around the dark Titan's neck and she smiled when her friend returned her embrace. It had been a strange few weeks but if it meant that her stronger friendship with Raven had been the result, then it seemed worth the confusion and the strife.

"You should go to him," Starfire said as she pulled away. "He could not stop turning back to observe you as he departed from us and it is my belief that he would prefer your company. He had the eyes of the puppy dog. I shall see you at the tower tomorrow, friend Raven."

Raven smiled a lopsided smile at her friend's suggestion and nodded, calling her powers to herself and vanishing in a mist of shadows.

O • O • O • O

Jason had turned a corner and had no more opportunity to glance behind him at Raven anymore, so he shoved his hands in his pockets and made his way back to his condo. The meeting had gone well. He had been surprised to find that he quite liked Starfire when she wasn't actively trying to hunt him down, subdue him, and turn him over to the authorities. She was real and genuine and that was rare for him to see. She was refreshing and he could see why Raven found herself drawn to her.

He sighed, remembering that it was going to be hours before Raven was due at his place and he wondered what he was going to do to pass the time.

But before he could come up with and idea he felt arms wrap around his waist from behind as a figure rushed into him. He stumbled forward a few steps and heard familiar laughter behind him. He sighed from the still unexplained comfort that they felt in each others' presence and turned to face his favorite person in the world.

Raven smiled up at him as he drew her to him.

"Not that this surprise isn't pleasant, Little Bird, but what are you doing here?"

"Kori insisted," she said. "She seemed convinced that you needed my company more. She said you were giving me 'the eyes of the puppy.' Apparently she couldn't let you suffer."

"I don't know if I'm offended or if I'm actually that pathetically obvious," he pouted.

"Maybe it's not you," she said, smirking. She lowered her voice conspiratorially. "Maybe it's just Peter."

He arched an eyebrow at her and didn't deign to respond.

"Seriously," Raven continued. "Where did you pull that name from?"

"You want the truth or the fun, flamboyant version?"

It was Raven's turn to arch her brow at him in silence, which only served to make him laugh as he leaned in over her shoulder.

"You now can't say that you don't know my middle name."

She pulled back from him and stared at him in surprise.

"You used your _real_ middle name?"

"Are you going to call me an idiot? Because you say that so often that I'm starting to thing it's just a fun pet name that you have for me."

He laid a finger on her lips as she opened them to speak.

"It's Kori, Raven. You trusted her to meet me, I highly doubt that she'll break that trust by blabbing about anything we discussed. Regardless, Boy Blunder doesn't know my middle name, only Br . . . only Batman knows."

She didn't make a comment on his stumble in speech. Some things weren't her business and she fully understood that. But she _did_ breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the name wasn't something that could get Jason caught. She and the rest of the Titans were on decent terms now but Robin was still distant with her and she feared that he still wouldn't hesitate at the chance to take Red X down.

He stroked her lip with his finger as he removed it from her face. He leaned in and kissed her in a way that reminded her how well he knew her body and she pulled him in deeper. He broke from her all too soon.

"Still concerned about keeping my identity a secret, Little Bird. Any chance that now you actually _do_ care about a humble thief?"

She smiled at the reference to that same question asked weeks ago and nudged his nose playfully with hers.

"I _still_ fucking hate you sometimes, and you're _still_ not humble. But yes, I suppose I do." She looked up at him and winked. "Maybe I've just grown accustomed to your face."

He laughed out loud and she found herself succumbing to the same reaction. It took them a while before they could compose themselves.

"So," she said, taking a deep breath in recovery from her fit of laughter, a sound that Jason could never get enough of, "what do we do with the rest of the day that we suddenly have available to us?"

His grin was positively wicked. He leaned in over her shoulder and whispered a single word in her ear in a throaty whisper. She bit down on her lower lip like she did when she was thinking . . . or feeling mischievous and smiled back at him.

"Dessert it is."

O • O • O • O

Raven dipped the tip of the spoon into the thick bronze sauce and sighed as she put it into her mouth, savoring the taste. It was her favorite caramel sauce, lightly salted, with a hint of hazelnut.

"Eating it straight out of the bowl isn't how it's done, Little Bird."

She looked over at him and scoffed. "Suddenly all about rules, Jason?"

"When it comes to this, yes," he said sternly, though his eyed belied his serious tone.

She dipped the spoon into the sauce again and this time trailed the spoon over her collarbone and across to her shoulder, leaving a fine trail of caramel on her skin before setting the spoon back in the bowl. Jason hummed and pulled her down to lay in the bed beside him and he licked and suckled her flesh – causing her eyes to flutter shut as he did, enjoying every sensation – until every bit of the caramel path was gone.

He reached across her toward the nightstand for the spoon and let the excess caramel pour back into the bowl before drizzling another sticky line from her stomach up to the hollow of her throat.

"Are you taking two turns?" she chastised, though her tone lost its severity as he began to follow the trail with his tongue.

"Mmm hmm," he hummed.

"I thought you were all about the rules when it comes to this," she panted.

"Not a fucking good guy, remember?" he murmured against her skin, holding her shoulders down against the bed in case she tried to rise before he was done. "Everyone seems to be forgetting that lately. Rules only apply when they benefit me."

Raven opened her mouth to argue his take on rules but she lost herself to the moment and found herself unable to articulate the right words.

She simultaneously cursed and commended him.

They lay beside each other after taking their indulgence, heads resting together and staring at the ceiling, chests heaving with heavy breaths. They were perfectly content in the moment, both reeling in the intensity of what they had just experienced.

"Fuck," Raven said, finally. Jason laughed and wrapped his arm around her, drawing her to his chest.

"Hmm," he agreed, whispering into her hair. "That was . . . intense. Even for us."

She lifted her head and looked at him with a fire in her eyes. She descended on him once again and he let out a low chuckle as he flipped the sheet over them both, enveloping them in their own private cocoon. The action knocked over the bowl of caramel on the nightstand and the spoon flipped out, lying completely forgotten in a growing pool of caramel.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Things had gotten a lot better for Raven after the day that Starfire met Jason. Something about bringing the two halves of her life together, even if only in part, had healed something in her and she found the tension at the tower finally lessening.

But it was about a week later that things really turned the corner for the harmony of the tower. The Titans sat in the common room, Cyborg and Beast Boy playing video games and Cyborg edging out his friend in Order of Assignment: Modern Tactics while Raven read on the other end of the couch.

"What?!" Beast Boy yelled, throwing his hands in the air. "How did I die?! Again?! They have cheat codes or something! Hacked the game! It's the only way!"

Cyborg laughed from beside him as he continued playing. "Can someone get a blood test from the med bay?" he asked deadpanned as he leaned to the left along with his strafing character as if it would get him there faster. "Need to check BB for hypernatremia."

"What?" Beast Boy said, confused.

"Extra sodium in your bloodstream," Cyborg said simply, as if it made perfect sense, still focused on the game. Beast Boy stared at him for a moment, utterly perplexed.

". . . _What_?!" Beast Boy said again, agitated, still not understanding.

"It means you're _salty_," Raven voiced, not looking up from her book at the same moment that Robin said the same thing, not looking up from his newspaper.

Everyone froze as they looked between the two who finally looked up from their reading and made eye contact with each other. They hadn't spoken much, or really spent much time in the same room, since Raven had announced her relationship.

But as they looked at each other, they couldn't help the smiles that came to their faces at their identical, simultaneous statements before they both broke up into laughter. Cyborg joined them and his uncontrolled laughter at his friend finally cost his character his life.

"Hey," Beast Boy whined, finally getting the joke. "Why's everyone picking on _me_?"

Raven could feel a tiny flicker of hope in her that maybe her relationship with Robin wasn't completely beyond repair, but their laughter ceased as her phone's alarm went off. Friday night, early evening; she had set an alarm for her plans with Red X. She turned off the alarm, the smile gone from her face as she watched Robin turn serious.

"I should go," she said awkwardly, rising from her seat. "I'll see you guys later."

She closed her book and walked to the hall, anxious to be out of there before the tension grew thick again and lamenting the ruined moment for reconciliation.

Robin watched her leave and as soon as she was out of sight he stood abruptly and followed her. He saw her down the hall and called her name. She stopped, closing her eyes and hoping that this wasn't going to be another awkward conversation. She turned as he reached her.

"Raven . . . I . . ."

He stood there, words failing him, for several moments before he reached out to grab her by the arm and pull her into his arms. He hugged her, resting his head on hers and he sighed as he felt her arms wrap around his torso in response. She gripped him just as tightly as he held her and they stayed that way for what seemed like long minutes.

Their bond resonated harmoniously for the first time in over a month and it brought some manner of peace to them both.

"I've missed you, Raven," he whispered into her hair.

"Gods, I've missed you too," she murmured into his chest. "I was beginning to fear that I had ruined this."

He pulled away and held her by the shoulders.

"You didn't ruin anything, Raven. I haven't handled this well. And before you tell me that my feelings matter and that I had to handle it in my own way, I _still_ should have taken your feelings into account too. You tried to spare my feelings and I treated you poorly in spite of it. Raven, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Raven threw her arms around him again and he chuckled in surprise, holding her to him again. Their bond hummed happily and Raven felt as if something dark within her had finally been banished.

"I'm sorry too, Robin. Sorry that it came to this. But I'm not sorry he came along. I am sorry that it hurt you, but I can't be sorry for what I have."

"I know," he whispered, tightening his hold on her. "I know, Rae. And it's not your fault, it just . . . sucks."

They shared a laugh again before he pulled away from her once more.

"I mean, if you ever feel the need to cut him loose I won't complain-"

Her face's wry mix of admonishment and amusement cut him off.

"I know, Rae. Sorry. Had to say it. You should go. You'll be late."

She smiled at him, tinged with just the hint of sadness and he gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead before turning back to the common room.

The following weeks saw her happier than ever. She was always happy and complacent with Jason, but now that feeling carried over into the tower as well and she was so relieved. For her and Robin to be in a place where they could hold conversations again and at least have a semblance of what they used to have together before all of this with Red X was what Raven had really needed the most. He was still her best friend, even if there was still some tension there, and she hadn't realized how much she had missed having that connection with him. She was riding on the emotional high of the peace in her life and it was a feeling she was unaccustomed to.

And so it was that Raven found herself one evening sitting curled up on Jason's couch and reading a book waiting for him to return with take out, trying to banish this niggling feeling in the back of her mind that happiness like this just didn't last.

She heard the keys jangling and smiled as the door opened, though she didn't lift her eyes from her book. She had figured that her joy at his presence – the calm that he brought her with nothing more than his proximity to her – would have faded at least a bit after all the time they spent together, but she still could _not_ help but smile when he came into a room.

She heard the plastic bag get placed on the counter as the door closed behind him, but then no other sound was made and Jason made no move to come toward her.

"I can explain," he said when she didn't look up.

Raven lowered her book to her lap and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. It was never a dull moment with him.

She looked over and saw a guilty looking Jason standing by the counter, his arms held against his chest with a small grey kitten nestled in them, playing with the drawstring of his hoodie.

Raven's eyes narrowed as she opened her mouth, but she couldn't figure out what words she wanted to say. Even for the strange scale that Raven used to measure his actions, coming home with a kitten when she had sent him out for food was still rather random.

"Before you say anything," he said, finally making his way toward the couch, "she was just sitting in a box in the alley and _she_ started following _me_. She waited for me outside of the restaurant, Little Bird. She's thin, but surprisingly flea free and she's adorable and I couldn't just leave her on the streets of the city and it's supposed to rain tonight and she's just _so_ little."

Raven managed to keep a straight face during his rambling but a smile came to her face when he handed the kitten over and she curled up atop Raven's book as if she belonged there. She stared at Jason who looked at her hopefully and she started laughing.

"So . . . laughing means we keep her?" he asked.

"I just . . . can _not_ reconcile the Red X that was Robin's enemy number two to the one that rescues kittens and brings them home because he _just can't help himself_."

Jason flashed his characteristic smirk at her as she lifted the cat the cuddle it against her chest.

"I can always take the kitten back and go rob a museum if you would prefer, Little Bird."

Raven held the cat to her and said in a deadpanned voice, "You can take this cat over my dead body. And you can rob a museum at the risk of yours. Your tentative status with the Titans only holds as long as your thievery is used to steal things _back_, Jace."

He hummed thoughtfully at her, but the smile on his face belayed any mock irritation he tried to project. He sat beside her and stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers, but the action only spurred the kitten into trying to fight his hand as they both laughed.

"Besides," he said, "every witch needs a cat. It's tradition."

"Well I wouldn't want to fly in the face of tradition, now would I?"

She fell asleep that night, curled up against Jason while the cat curled herself up in the crook behind Raven's bend knees. The Titan lay there, eyes closed and breathing in Jason's familiar scent, reaching down to stroke the kitten's ears. She was finally happy, truly happy, with her life as a whole. Sleep should have come easily that night.

But the niggling in the back of her mind still would not leave her.

O • O • O • O

The rains plagued the city for the last week, never letting up quite long enough to give the citizens a respite from the windswept water that just didn't seem to want to fall in any direction but sideways. The general feeling that Raven could feel from the city was a general sense of misery and she was grateful for her newfound happiness to negate the depression she could feel pulsing from the city. At the week's end the rains finally lifted, but the dull, grey feeling and the purveying damp seemed to haunt the streets.

The Titans went on patrol that night, splitting up the city as they did when there were no active crime alerts, making their rounds as sentinels of the city. They did it often, as much to deter crime as to ease the public with the sight of their presence.

Raven had cleared it with the Titans to patrol with Red X weeks after revealing her relationship with him. Since he had put off petty thieving and taken to returning stolen items instead the Titans had decided to test Raven's endorsement of their former foe. He had helped stop a robbery that night and the Titans were forced to reluctantly accept this limbo of grey where he was allowed to exist.

Not long after he had learned about a case plaguing the Titans about stolen research on a new super drug. The files were found on the Titans doorstep not two days later along with the bound body of the man who had stolen them, a sticky note on the folder with a red x marked on it.

And this was how Red X's interactions with the Titans had gone since then, not a part of them, but no longer watched by them either. Recently even Robin had admitted to the thief's helpfulness, though it clearly pained him to do so.

And so on this gloomy, heavy night Raven flew over her sector of the city while Red X roamed the streets below, tag-teaming her slightly larger patrol area together. Raven flew down to the street to meet with him after their sweep was done.

She pulled out her communicator as she landed and, after a few seconds, nodded and tucked it away.

"The others are done and back at the tower," she said as she approached him.

"Anything from above?" he asked as he grabbed her hips and pulled her against him.

"Nothing," she purred. "You?"

"Not a thing."

"So, we're done here then."

"Which means it's finally time to take you home and have my way with you."

She hit him in the chest playfully as she rolled her eyes.

"All you ever think about," she murmured, winking at him.

"I mean, two people as beautiful as us? It's a wonder that we allow each other to ever get dressed at all, Little Bird."

"Are you insinuating that it's all I ever think about as well?"

He pulled her hips more tightly against his. He leaned over her shoulder, his breath escaping his mask and brushing against her skin and raising the hairs on the back of her neck.

"I mean, if it's not I'm not doing my job very well."

The timbre of his voice sent shivers through her and she pulled back and smiled up at him.

"I think you do your job quite admirably, just so you're aware, but you know I'm due at the tower tonight."

Her head turned suddenly as soon as the words were out of her mouth, the playfulness gone from her face and her body growing still.

"What is it?" He asked, his body reacting to her sudden change and growing defensive. He had grown accustomed to her heightened senses and awareness and knew that something had felt off to her if it had drawn her attention like that.

"I don't know," she whispered, her gaze flitting from window to window in the buildings around them. "Something's just . . . off. I feel . . . dread. And the presence of something magical, but I can't place it. I can't really explain it."

They saw the two shadows at the same time, the first darting into the doors of an abandoned textiles company the next block over and the other stumbling into a nearby alley, clutching it's side. Raven could smell blood on him and the sense of magic was coming from the second figure as well.

They looked at each other, Raven inclining her head at him and then to the building. He nodded, and used his head to indicate the alley. She nodded back.

"I can smell blood," she whispered. "If someone's hurt I can help. And the magic is coming from them too. I'll be better equipped to deal with it."

He squeezed her hand before turning to the building, using his belt to transport into it to check things out in there as she wrapped her soul self around her and appeared in the shadows of the alley.

She reached out her senses and found someone hiding behind the dumpster up ahead and she called upon her powers again to appear behind it. She saw a huddled figure there, a boy no more than fifteen, crouched and trembling, holding a hand to his side and looking around the edge of the dumpster as if waiting for someone to appear. Something was clutched in his other hand but Raven couldn't make it out in the shadows.

"Expecting someone?" she asked, startling the boy. He threw his back against the dumpster, the fear in his face palpable. He held no weapons and looked at her with abject terror.

"Hey, hey," she said, holding her hands out, though she didn't step to approach him. "What the hell are you doing skulking around in alleys and abandoned buildings in the middle of the night?"

The boy was trembling and she could see a deep gash in his side. She sensed that he would be unable to answer her until he calmed.

"You're hurt," she said holding out a hand as she sent out some of her power to help slow his heart rate and ease his breathing. The effect was immediate and she repeated her question. He still did not answer her.

"What do you have in your hand?" she asked, gently, inclining her head at the object in his hand. "I can feel the magic from it. Is it why you're wounded? Are you in trouble?"

He dropped the object that she felt the aura off of, as if just now remembering that he was holding it. She watched as it rolled away from him toward her, her head cocked in confusion. It was a small stone and as she used her powers to examine it she recognized it as a crude magic beacon. It was something that someone would use to call those sensitive to magic to their aid, which was why she felt called to it.

"Where did you get something like that?" she asked as she crouched down to look at his wound now that she could sense no more magic on him. She began to heal him in hopes he would be more inclined to answer her if she helped him.

"I-I-I was just told to try to draw your attention," he stammered. "We were told to get your attention and separate you. I-I'm sorry. They cut me, gave me the stone and told me to wait for you to notice us and hide in this alley. They said they'd kill my brother if I didn't do it."

Her sense of dread grew.

"Who did? Why did they want us separated? Where is -"

She had gotten too distracted in trying to calm the boy, healing him, and using her magic to sense out the beacon; she almost sensed the other presence too late. She turned, putting herself between the kid and the other figure just as the first shots rang out through the alley. She focused on holding the shield as the barrage of bullets hit it, the man on the fire escape outside of the second floor of the building not letting up on his sub machine gun fire.

It took only a few seconds for him to empty the magazine but the focus she'd had to put into her shield had been tiring after a night of patrol and her recent use of magic with the boy. As soon as she heard the metallic scrape that indicated him changing the magazine, she dropped the shield and lashed out with her power, slamming the man into the railing of the fire escape. She saw the spray of blood through the air as he stumbled and sliced his leg on a broken piece of the staircase.

She lashed out her powers again to subdue him now that he was injured but the rapid popping sound of another sub machine gun behind her made her realize that the man she had been fighting was just a distraction. She noticed the other figure on the fire escape behind her too late and she froze in shock as the pain blossomed from her back and chest. She felt her knees hit the wet pavement and then the darkness took her.

O • O • O • O

Red X caught up to the shadowy figure in moments, grabbing him by the arm and asking him just what he thought he was up to. But the figure turned out to be a boy in his mid to late teens, fear in his eyes mixed with a cold stare in a look that spoke to Red X. This was a kid who had been hardened by the streets. A kid that was desperate.

"What the hell do you think you're doing skulking about the industrial district in the middle of the night?" he asked. "The fuck are you up to? And what did you do to the guy in the alley?"

"The fuck do you care?" the kid spat back, taking a swing at Red X that he easily dodged.

"How old are you, kid?"

"I'm eighteen, asshole. I'm not a kid."

"Then I don't feel bad at all about doing this."

Red X reached out and punched the kid in the jaw before using a kick to sweep out the boy's legs from under him, knocking him to the floor.

"What the fuck?!" the kid yelled, still sprawled on the floor.

"Now, we can keep playing this way where you disrespect me and I knock you to the floor, or you can start being helpful."

"I was just told to get you on your own," he said, his demeanor not nearly as tough. "We've been on the street since our parents went missing last month. I'm just trying to do what I can for my brother. I was paid to lure you in here."

"Why?"

"I don't know, asshole! I just did what I was told. They still have my brother, they hurt him, I didn't have much of a choice."

"Who are _they_?"

"Fuck off."

Red X kicked him in the ribs, causing him to cry out as he grabbed his side.

"They said you were a hero," he gasped. "What kind of hero does something like that?"

"That's just the thing, kid," Red X said, leaning down over him, "I'm _not_ a hero."

"Then why were you with _her_? She's a Titan, isn't she?"

Dread bloomed in him.

"What does _she_ have to do with this?" he hissed, grabbing him by the shirtfront and hoisting him to a sitting position while using a hand to press on the man's wounded ribs.

"I-I don't know," he said, suddenly sensing that he was in more danger than he had first thought. "I was just told to get you away from her. They gave my brother something that would call her to him and they told me to distract you in another direction. They wanted you lured away and they wanted _her_ in the alley. That's all I know."

The man's words sank in and terror crept into his heart and it was then that he heard the popping sound from outside that was an all too familiar sound. He delivered a swift blow to the man's head, knocking him unconscious before using the belt to appear in the alley where Raven had pursued the other shadow.

It only took a few seconds for him to see her, the slumped figure of the woman he suddenly realized that he loved laying in a puddle that was being stained red by the pool of blood growing beneath her.

"Raven!" he screamed, the sound tearing through his throat as he ran for her. He could see the wounds in her chest and back and he could feel the life draining out of her. His heart clenched as he reached for her and his belt at the same time. It would take several jumps to get to help. He hoped she had enough time.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: I am so sorry it's been so long! There was a move and all sorts of other excuses (a slight bout of the blues definitely contributing), but the story is not over! I'll try to keep up with a weekly posting but we'll have to see how often I can get to it. Just know that I will try my best.

Thank you to all of you that have stuck with me and for the wonderful reviews! Know that I read them and that they are helpful and inspiring me to keep going. (A special shout out to jltvaughn for continuing to check in. Know that your words are appreciated!) So, here we go after far too long . . .

**Chapter 14**

Robin walked out of the kitchen with a steaming mug of coffee in his hands, hoping it would drive away the lingering cold and damp feeling from the still drenched city. He had been strangely nervous about patrols tonight; something about the dark and the rain always managed to pull the worst of society out of the holes they hid in. But the night had been uncharacteristically quiet, which should have made him feel better, but he found that he just couldn't shake the nerves that were still on edge.

He looked around the room, trying to see if Raven had arrived from her patrol yet. She had messaged him to let him know that she and Red X had finished their route fifteen minutes ago and he had expected to find her already back in the common room with the others. But a quick scan of the room revealed that she hadn't arrived yet.

But he shook his head and tried to banish the weird sinking feeling that still hadn't left him. She was likely just saying goodbye to Red X and that was an image that he did _not_ want in his head.

He approached the others, who were sitting on the couch and arguing over which movie they should watch, when he heard the familiar sound of rushing wind that came from the teleportation device he had created.

He turned and saw Red X crouched on the floor behind him, covered in blood and holding Raven in his arms while he screamed for help. The pallor of her skin terrified him. How much blood had she lost? What had happened?

But it only took a moment for him to notice the number of wounds in her chest. His entire body grew cold.

It was pandemonium after that. The others rose from the couch at Red X's shouts and they were all frozen with horror at the sight of Raven.

"The med bay!" Robin shouted as he pointed to Cyborg. "Take him with you."

Cyborg sprang into action, vaulting over the couch and sliding to within Red X's reach so he could use the belt to teleport them both. Robin was already bolting for the stairs before Starfire and Beast Boy had even had a chance to react. They weren't far behind Robin once their brief moment of shock wore off.

Robin slammed into the door of the med bay and watched Cyborg busy at work, an IV already in Raven's arm with a bag of blood hanging on the hook beside her. He had activated the med bots that he had been working on for just such an occasion and they whirred to life, scuttling over the table and over the body of their patient, some set to work on wounds and most just to staunch the flow of blood.

Red X was hovering over Raven, desperate to do something but not knowing exactly what it was that he could do. Currently he was busying himself with handing Cyborg anything that he asked for. He was visibly shaking as he handed over instruments and syringes and the motion did nothing but make the dread in Robin grow. He had never seen Red X lose control of any emotion that wasn't rage and this show of fear had Robin's body beginning to tremble as well.

Robin walked up to Cyborg and asked what he could do. They held a hushed conversation as Cyborg continued to work, Red X across the room gathering vials out of the cabinet and muttering the names that Cyborg had ordered him to get so he wouldn't forget. The monitor behind Cyborg flashed to life as it began to read Raven's vitals once the wires were all placed.

"What can I do?" Robin asked. "Should we take her to the hospital?"

"She's losing blood too fast," Cyborg said, not looking at his leader and focusing on the multiple tasks he had at hand. "It's a wonder that she made it here with a heartbeat. The bots are already working on packing the wounds. Stopping the bleeding is the most important thing right now. Once they're on top of that a few of them will start on bullet extraction and stitching up the wounds of the through and throughs. I just gotta keep enough blood in her for her heart to keep pumping until her healing factor can start working on the internal injuries. _That's_ what you can do, Robin. I'm gonna need all the O positive and negative that we have in storage. Get it for me. _All_ of it."

Robin moved before Cyborg had finished speaking, crossing into the side room of the med bay and dashing for the storage fridge. He pulled the only bags of O blood that they had in the fridge and carried them back to Cyborg. It wasn't nearly as many bags as he had hoped and he couldn't help his mind wondering whether it was going to be enough.

"Thanks, man," Cyborg said as Robin laid the bags on a silver cart beside the table. His eyes flicked to the cart and he shook his head before moving on to the next task. "It's not a lot," he muttered.

"Is it enough?" Robin asked, fearfully as Red X returned, handing over the vials.

"I don't know, man," Cyborg replied. "It wouldn't hurt to hit up the hospital for more."

Robin looked up at Red X, who's haunted gaze was fixed on Raven.

"Any more charges left?"

"One," the thief said in a choked whisper. "Not enough to get her help _and_ make it back."

Starfire and Beast Boy burst through the doors and Robin turned to them immediately.

"We need blood," he said in a commanding voice. "Type O. Negative or positive. Jump City General is closest." He looked at the bag on the hook that was steadily draining as her body leaked it all back out again. Get all they can spare."

Starfire and Beast Boy look at each other.

"Go," Beast Boy said. "You're faster. I'll stay and help Cy however he needs."

She was out of the room immediately, knowing that there was no time to lose and racing as fast as she could go, hoping that she was fast enough.

Robin asked Cyborg what else he could do but Cyborg said that anything, besides fetching things that he needs, would require actual knowledge in medicine. He said the bots would help him fix enough until her healing factor took over, as long as he could keep her heart beating and her lungs inflating. Robin and Red X tried for some time to remain but stay out of Cyborg's way and found that their efforts were useless.

Cyborg looked up momentarily at Robin before shouting for him and Red X to get out of the room. He said that he needed room to work and that both of them were too emotionally involved to be in here. He assured them that Beast Boy would be able to give him any assistance but that _their_ presence was only going to hinder him and was only going to wreak havoc on her emotions when her healing factor kicked in. He ordered them to leave and Robin tugged a reluctant Red X toward the doors. He didn't want to leave either, but he had seen what happened when someone emotionally compromised got in the way of doctors trying to help. He wouldn't let that happen to Raven.

Red X heard heavy metallic clinking noises and his head snapped to the side of the table where three of the med bots had just dropped extracted bullets into the collection pan. He felt like he was going to be sick.

"Should we just take her to the hospital?" Red X asked frantically, his eyes suddenly focused and unwavering from the growing pool of blood on the table beneath Raven as Robin continued to pull him from the room.

Robin's eyes narrowed at the same thought he had voiced earlier as he followed the thief's line of sight and felt his blood turn to ice at the sight of how much blood she was still losing, despite Cyborg and his bots' best efforts to stop the flow. He pulled the thief out of the doors and turned his glare at Red X before speaking.

"Cyborg said she won't make the trip; that it was a miracle that she made it here. He said that the bots can handle the . . . they can handle the packing of the wounds and the bullet extraction and the only other thing was to keep giving her heart blood to pump until her healing factor sets in to handle all of the internal injuries.

"Besides," he said pointedly, "I think last time proved that security at the hospital is greatly lacking. We have to find out who did this to her and we can keep her better protected here. I think she's best off here." His tone told Red X that the Titan was trying to convince himself of his words as much as he was the thief. "What the fuck happened, X? How did this happen to her? Who did this?"

Red X's eyes darkened as he turned to Robin, remembering that what had happened to Raven was planned and fury rising in him at the thought.

He told Robin everything that had happened after patrol; about the two figures that had done their job of separating him from Raven, about the magic item and the blood that drew Raven to the alley, and about the lack of anyone else in the alley by the time he had heard the gunfire and gotten to her. He mentioned that he had left one of the boys unconscious in the building where he had confronted him and Robin's eyes narrowed behind his mask.

"Show me," he growled.

Red X's eyes turned back to the doors of the med bay but Robin grabbed his shoulder and turned him away.

"There's nothing that we can do in there," he said, again for his sake as much as Red X's. "Beast Boy will be there if Cyborg needs anything."

As if on cue to help ease their fears, Starfire called that moment and Robin pulled out his comm, turning away from the thief and walking down the hall. He returned in a few moments, putting the comm away.

"Star's almost back with the blood. She'll be here in a few minutes."

He saw that Red X's eyes were firmly trained on the door again and Robin stepped between him and the entrance to break the thief's stare. "The best thing that we can do is find out why this happened and to make sure that it doesn't happen again," Robin said firmly. "We need to go after whoever did this and the more time we wait the less chance we'll have of tracking them."

Red X looked at him and took a moment before nodding. "They're going to pay," he said in a visceral tone that Robin felt a kinship for in the moment.

"Yes they are," he said darkly, as he indicated for Red X to follow him as he ran, now renewed with purpose, to the garage so they could race from the tower and back into the night clad streets.

O • O • O • O

Robin took Red X to the garage and indicated the Yamaha R1, one of the spare bikes that he had for fun, asking if he knew how to ride. Red X had scoffed as he threw a leg over the motorcycle, looking it over and humming in approval.

Red X whistled as he started the R1 murmuring that it reminded him of one he used to ride himself. Robin tried to give him a warning, "I've modified this one. It's likely got more punch than bikes you're used to riding-"

But Red X had torn out of the garage, handling the bike like a champ. Robin's jaw clenched as he started his Titan bike and took off after him. He caught up with him as he turned toward the industrial district, overtaking the thief and taking the lead.

Red X raced through the outskirts of the city on Robin's bike, weaving through the streets on the tail of the Titan. Robin had to admit that he was surprised at the man's skill on a motorcycle, pulling some pretty tight maneuvers in order to keep up with him – especially since the R1, while fast and maneuverable, was no comparison to the R cycle that he was riding now that had been created by a collaboration between himself and Batman. Yet the thief was holding his own and managing to keep pace. Robin would have felt annoyance at the admiration of the thief, but his emotions were all consumed with the fear and rage that was coursing through him.

Red X kept right behind Robin as the Titan followed his directions to the area of the industrial district where Raven had gotten attacked. Red X was trying to reign in the rage that he had so often allowed to go unchecked. It had helped him survive, once upon a time, but he had begun to change with his time with Raven and he knew that if he lost control tonight then he would lose some of that man that Raven loved. As much as he wanted to rip the assassin to pieces he knew that it wasn't worth losing Raven.

But he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to help himself when the time came.

He could feel the fury rise in him as the building came into sight. He pulled to a stop beside Robin and they wasted no time in tearing their way into the building.

Unfortunately the building was empty.

The boy that Red X had knocked out had either regained consciousness and left or had been taken, but either way he wasn't there for them to question further and Red X swore.

He led them to the alley where Raven had gone where they split up; the alley where he had found her life draining from her. Robin knelt down by the dumpster and saw the puddle still red and the concrete stained a dark rusty color from Raven's spilled blood. He felt a rage overtake him that he hadn't felt before and he shoved Red X to the side as he turned and followed what he discerned was the trajectory of the shots that had taken down Raven.

He saw the scattered bullet casings on the ground where they had fallen through the grating of the fire escape and as he investigated the other side of the alley he saw more casings and bullets as well. Piecing together the scene after several minutes he told Red X that there appeared to have been two shooters. One of them Raven had managed to shield, making the bullets fall to the ground along with the casings, but the shooter on the other side of the alley had managed to go unnoticed and had been the one to successfully hit her.

The shooter that she had shielded had been injured, though, on a broken bit of the fire escape and had left a blood trail down the alley as he had fled.

They followed the trail and it didn't take them long to find a figure slumped over in the back doorway of one of the factories nearby. There was a bloody rag beside him and he looked to be rewrapping his leg with fabric ripped from his shirt, his gun propped up on the stoop beside him. Robin lunged for him and grabbed him by the shirtfront, hoisting him in the air and slamming the man's back against the brick wall beside him.

The man swore before Robin's fist collided with his jaw, knocking the back of his head against the wall behind him.

"Where's your partner?" Robin growled. "Who hired you?"

"Fuck," the man swore again. "Shoulda known better than to take a job on a Titan," he muttered. Robin's fist connected with the man's face again.

"I asked you a fucking question!" he shouted.

"I don't fucking know where he went!" he yelled after spitting out a mouth full of blood. "Asshole ditched me when I couldn't keep up, okay?!"

Robin pulled him away from the wall only to slam him back into it, the back of his head connecting with the brick wall again and his eyes growing dazed. "Who hired you?!" Robin yelled.

Red X reached out to place a hand on Robin's arm. "Hey, he needs to be conscious to answer," he chastised, acknowledging how strange it was for him to find himself as the voice of reason in this. "We need answers."

He turned to the man who was blinking away the blurriness creeping in on his vision. "I'd answer him, though before he does any more damage."

"It was the Syndicate," the man slurred, spitting more blood from his mouth. "It was just a hit. They called in everyone."

Red X's blood froze as he took in the man's words. It was all because of that hit. It was put out months ago and he had figured that no one dared take on the hit against a Titan. But he had been wrong and now understood, fully, that he was the reason that she was laying in the med bay at Titans Tower fighting for her life.

While Red X was filled with shame and regret, it was rage that filled Robin. His vision went white hot and he could feel himself shaking. There was a ringing in his ears and it wasn't until he realized that his shaking had shifted into someone forcefully shaking him that the sound died down and he could hear a voice shouting at him.

He blinked and felt Red X's hands on his shoulders and heard his voice screaming at him to stop. "You're going to kill him!" the voice kept screaming.

He looked ahead and saw the man still in his grip, his face no longer recognizable with the swelling and the blood. Robin's fist was still poised to strike him again, his glove coated in blood and his arm shaking with fury.

He turned to Red X and saw the thief heave a sigh of relief. How long had he been beating on this man? How long had Red X been trying to stop him?

Robin let go of the man and his body slumped to the ground, his breath coming out in ragged gasps through his broken nose and mouth full of cracked teeth and blood. Red X was staring him down, his hands still on his shoulders.

"Are you here now, kid?" he asked, tentatively letting go of the Titan's shoulders. "You were lost in that rage for awhile."

Robin nodded slowly, taking a step back and starting at the man slumped over before him. He shook his head and stared down at his hands. He couldn't remember losing control like that before, let alone blacking out and losing himself to anger. He hadn't known he was capable of such a thing. But as he looked back at Red X kneeling by the man and continuing to question him, he felt that rage growing in his chest again. This was the man that had helped to hurt Raven and he deserved everything that his fury had to give.

He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, turning away from the men before him and trying to collect himself. He had to control himself, if nothing else then at least for Raven's sake. She wouldn't want him traveling down this dark road.

But if she didn't make it through the night he wasn't sure what he was going to do. Or what he was capable of.

Robin called in the capture to the police once their questioning was done and they waited for them to arrive to ensure the man didn't escape justice. The officers had given the Titan questioning looks when they saw the state of the man, but something in Robin's face kept them from asking any questions that they might have.

The tone from his communicator caught his attention from the receding police cars and he reached down to grab it. Cyborg's exhausted voice came as Robin opened the communicator.

"We got the bleeding to stop," he reported, his face looking as if it had aged in the last hour. "Her healing factor finally kicked in. She's still getting blood, but it looks like we're past the worst of it now. Her lungs are healing according to the scans and she's expelling the last of the bullets. She hasn't regained consciousness but . . . she's healing."

Red X let out a strangled sigh and leaned against the wall, sliding down it until he was sitting on the floor. The relief broke through his guilt and he found himself shaking. He had been filled with so much anger during their search and then so much concern over Robin's loss of control that he had forgotten how scared he had been for Raven.

Robin let out a sigh of relief himself and he felt the cold dread that had washed over him replaced with gratitude. He thanked Cyborg and told him what they had learned from the would be assassin. He told him that they were heading back now. He tucked the communicator into his belt and turned to Red X.

"I thought I was going to lose her," Red X muttered. Robin wasn't sure if it was directed at him or if Red X had even realized that he had spoken out loud. But hearing his words only served to remind Robin that Raven was not _his _to lose but Red X's and it brought a hard edge back to the Titan.

"Let's get back to the tower," he said, considering his next move for a moment before reluctantly offering Red X his hand to help him rise.

Red X looked at the proffered hand and finally took it, rising to his feet. They returned to their motorcycles in silence. Robin finally broke it as he held his helmet in his hands.

"Thank you," he muttered, but loudly enough that he was sure Red X had heard him. The former thief looked up at him in surprise. "Thanks for stopping me. For keeping me from crossing a line tonight."

"To be honest I was surprised it wasn't the other way around," Red X admitted, grabbing his own helmet. "But you don't need to thank me. I know what it's like to get lost in the rage. It's a hard thing to come back from."

Robin nodded at him before putting his helmet on. They rode back to the tower through the wet streets, ready to see for themselves that Raven was, in fact, no longer in mortal peril. Though they were both relieved, each man was lost in the shadows of their own dark thoughts; Red X lost in his guilt over the hit and Robin in guilt over his loss of control. Robin had started the evening worried over the rain bringing out the worst of society in the city that night. Now he was wondering if the thing that he had been afraid of coming out tonight was him.


End file.
